Seizing the Future
by Dingo32
Summary: Sequel to Redeemer. Tayuya seeks a new purpose in life, Clark's friends back on Earth 1 seek a chance to get him back before the month is up, and Clark seeks to do what he can to help while trapped in this strange alternate world.
1. Chapter 1

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

Here's part two of the 'Redeemer' series or the first chapter of it at least, I was originally going to tell this opening story in one go but decided to make it a two part, anyhow, hope you enjoy it.

**Chapter 1**

Earth 1

The Kent Farm

Lana Lang focused intently on the horse she was grooming and tried hard not to think about how worried she was for Clark.

It had been two and a half weeks since he had been accidentally transported to another universe, the repairs to the device that had sent him there had been completed five days ago and the computer had been scanning through infinite realities, trying to find one containing a living organism with a vibrational signature matching this one.

Lana was also trying not to think about how much this stuff made a person's head hurt, she was a smart woman, but the physics of alternate realities could give _anybody _a headache if they thought too long and hard about them.

That device had been scanning two days on top of the nearly two weeks taken for the repairs and Lana was getting impatient, intellectually she knew that finding Clark would likely take longer, but that wasn't the point.

Clark was the love of her life and she wanted him back.

Lana also knew that the odds were against them even getting Clark back at all, they only had a couple of weeks to scan an infinite multiverse, they were going to need a lot of luck to pull this one off.

Lana hoped that wherever Clark was he hadn't come to harm, even if they couldn't get him back if he was okay then that was better than nothing.

And more than anything she missed him.

"Clark," Lana whispered quietly "I hope you're okay."

Earth 2

Clark was in full ass kicking mode as he caught the blade of the katana one of the bandits swung at him and snapped it like a twig, dropping the broken off metal onto the ground as he reached over and flicked the marauder under the jaw, dropping him to the ground unconscious.

Clark felt a crossbow bolt shatter against his back and turned, using his heat vision on the weapon that had fired the bolt he turned it into a lump of burning wood and forced the outlaw holding the weapon to drop it, a moment later this second bandit fell to a right cross from Naruto.

"Nice timing Naruto," Clark praised the young Genin "you cut off his escape."

"Kiba and I can handle things here Clark, believe it," Naruto replied with a foxy grin "you go and deal with their leader."

"You sure you guys got this?" Clark asked.

After all leaving kids to fight bandits without help still didn't sit right with him.

"We got it Clark," Kiba assured him as he and Akamaru used Fang over Fang on another group of bandits "go catch that guy, he's a missing Nin, we can't let him get away."

"I'm on it," Clark agreed reluctantly as he super sped in the direction the bandit leader had gone.

As he left Clark heard a shout of "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu" behind him, he smirked, remembering what that jutsu was.

_Yeah, I guess they have got things covered here, _he realized.

As he sped after the man Clark reviewed what he had been told about this guy in his mind; the man's name was Takeshi, missing nin from the Land of Earth, uses earth style ninjutsu (of course), has a Kekkei Genkai that allows him to absorb Chakra through skin to skin contact allowing him to permanently take on normal jutsus and even temporarily acquire the use of Kekkei Genkai, also uses those jutsus he has copied in this way.

Clark had been requested for this mission for two reasons;

His speed and strength meant he stood the best chance of disabling Takeshi before he could get caught by the man's Kekkei Genkai.

Because technically all of Clarks _own _powers were Kekkei Genkai, seeing as they were encoded into his genes that meant that if Takeshi _did _manage to absorb some of his Chakra he wouldn't be able to copy any of his abilities permanently, just temporarily.

As an added precaution however Clark had made sure to cover as much of his skin as possible, so as to limit the areas Takeshi could attack, this included a facemask in case Takeshi tried to absorb his powers through there, and of course gloves.

As Clark spotted the man he was supposed to capture hiding in the treetops he carefully made sure his mask was still in place, then heat visioned the branch right out from under him, going to super speed as the missing Nin fell, intending to knock him out as soon as he landed.

However, as Clark's enemy fell to the ground from Clark's (very light by his standards) punch he crumbled into dirt and dust.

_Earth clone, _Clark realized _where's the real one?_

Clark began listening carefully, if he could locate a heartbeat then that would tell him who was real and who wasn't.

After a few moments Clark managed to lock in on what he was looking for, coming from _under _the ground twenty meters to his left, he turned in that direction, only to find that his feet wouldn't budge, looking down he realized that both of his feet were held in massive hands formed of solid granite, he tugged against one of them with all of his strength, but it was taking all of his enormous strength just to get the stone to _crack_, Chakra enhanced obviously.

Clark clenched a fist, ready to bend down and smash those stone manacles into pieces, but two more of those stone hands rose out of the earth and latched onto his wrists.

It was at this point that Takeshi revealed himself, rising up out of the earth right in front of Clark, reaching forward as the Kryptonian tried to pull away he ripped Clark's mask right off his face, then slammed his bare hand against Clark's forehead.

Clark strained against the stone holding him, feeling it crack with agonizing slowness as he also felt the disturbing sensation of his strength being drained right out of him.

**Authors note; this chapter has been edited to fix a minor continuity error near the start.**

**Replies to reviews**

**Sb; oops, sorry about that, must have happened when I uploaded an edited version of this chapter to correct a continuity error, if you're reading this then the correct chapter is now in place.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 2**

Tayuya grit her teeth with effort as she held herself upright on the parallel bars in the hospital, the bones in her legs were healed thanks to Tsunade's efforts, but the muscle damage meant that she had to build up the strength in them again before she could regain the ability to walk.

She put as much weight as she dared on her severely weakened legs, until they trembled from the effort, she should probably have been a little more patient and not pushed herself this hard this early, but Tayuya was never known for her patience.

Tayuya stumbled a little, catching herself before she fell, gripping the bars in a white knuckled death grip as she did.

"No-fuck it, _no_-I am_ not _going to fall again," she hissed through clenched teeth, as she continued walking step by agonizing step.

"That's enough for now Tayuya," the voice belonged to Shizune "it's time to rest; you've been at it for nearly half an hour."

"Dammit, just a few more minutes," Tayuya practically demanded "the sooner I get my legs under me the sooner I can put all this shit behind me and start trying to find a new direction in life."

"You could do yourself permanent damage if you overdo it," Shizune reminded her "if that happens then you'll never get your legs back under you."

"Ugh-fine," Tayuya reluctantly agreed, clearly not happy about it as she allowed Shizune to help her off of the bars and over to a nearby chair where she could sit and rest for a bit.

After helping her into the chair Shizune made sure to place Tayuya's crutches within easy reach.

"So how are you feeling?" Shizune asked the recovering teenager "honest answer please."

"Honest answer?" Tayuya quirked an eyebrow at the older woman "well I haven't had the urge to stick any pointy objects into my chest lately."

"That's good to hear," Shizune replied with a light smile "you scared the hell out of us you know."

"Sorry about that," Tayuya replied, apparently a little of Clark was rubbing off on her if she was actually apologizing for something "I wasn't thinking, I just didn't feel like I could keep going."

"Do you still feel that way?"

"No," Tayuya assured her, with perhaps more strength in her voice than was actually needed "it was a moment of weakness, I can't fucking believe that I was ready to give up that easily, still not sure what the fuck to do with my life though-now that I can't be a shinobi anymore that is."

"With a mouth like yours I'm sure you could get a job as a dock worker," Shizune joked, noting Tayuya's glare she quickly added "I'm joking, but in all seriousness I'm sure that you'll figure something out."

"I guess I could go back to Clark's world with him when he finds a way back," Tayuya mused in a rare moment of quiet thought "try my hand as a superhero, but what if I fuck up at that? I could end up getting the people I'm trying to protect killed."

"You're not scared are you?" Shizune asked with a sly, teasing smile.

"Fuck no," Tayuya denied vehemently "it's just-being an assassin is simple, you find your target and figure out a way to kill em, end of story, being a hero-a protector is-complicated."

"You're pretty complicated yourself," Shizune observed "at first glance most people would see the foulmouthed tomboy, but as someone gets to know you they realize that there's so much more to you than just that."

"All that shit's just a defense mechanism," Tayuya confided "the only way the other bastards in the Sound Five would take me seriously, what with me being a girl and all."

"I thought so," Shizune replied as she leaned back in her own chair.

"You tell anybody I said that I'll have to fuck you up," Tayuya threatened.

"My lips are sealed," Shizune assured her "not that I couldn't take you that is."

"Good," Tayuya nodded, satisfied "I feel rested enough now, can I continue?"

"Ten more minutes, then we'll call it quits for the day," Shizune replied with a nod.

Clark strained desperately against the stone holding him as Takeshi drained more and more of his power, if he didn't get free soon then he wouldn't be getting free at all.

_C'mon, break damn you break, _he screamed silently as the stone cracked a little more.

Then Clark's right fist tore free of the stone holding it and with Takeshi having absorbed some of his power Clark knew he didn't have to hold back against him so he slammed that fist into Takeshi's jaw full force, sending the missing Nin reeling.

Clark busied himself with freeing his other hand as Takeshi went flying backwards in a roar of snapping timber.

Quickly smashing the stone holding his left hand, Clark then proceeded to free his feet, once that was done he took off after Takeshi at super speed, meeting him halfway as Takeshi came speeding right back at him, blows were exchanged simultaneously, with a sound like a thunderclap, the shockwave from the impact shattering nearby trees and rocks.

Clark and Takeshi went flying in opposite directions, both landing in crouches as they came to a stop, Takeshi went to super speed, trying to get the fight in close where he could absorb more of Clark's power.

Clark let fly with a blast of heat vision that effectively nipped that idea in the bud as it knocked Takeshi flat on his ass.

"There's no way I'm letting you touch me again," Clark swore as he watched Takeshi get back up, a little winded, but not harmed to any great degree by the hit he had taken.

A sound of shifting earth behind Clark alerted him to a new danger, and he turned and dodged just in time to avoid getting hit by another of those granite hands, jumping up on top of it and smashing it into pieces with a couple of punches as he did.

_Okay _Clark assessed _This guy has his Earth style jutsus, whatever other jutsus he's copied from others, and for a while he's gonna have the same kind of powers as me, he didn't get all of my power, but combined with his existing jutsu it's gonna make beating him very difficult._

Clark watched the missing Nin, Takeshi very closely as he tried to figure out a way to take him down.


	3. Chapter 3

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 3**

Earth 2

Clark was frantically dodging stone hands as he tried to avoid getting caught again, he found himself very thankful for the basic taijutsu lesson that Maito Gai had given him so far during his stay in this world, even if he did find the man-disturbingly weird.

He was also thankful to Kakashi for teaching him some entry level Chakra control techniques, stuff like climbing vertical surfaces without using his hands, walking on water and concentrating Chakra into a specific part of the body to increase his already considerable speed and strength.

It was amazing how useful that stuff could be, sticking to a tree a good way up helped keep him out of the reach of stone hands for a while, allowing him to take potshots at Takeshi with his heat vision, until the missing Nin heat visioned the tree out from under him that is.

_Okay, time to use some of those weapons they gave me, _Clark decided _starting with the exploding tags._

As the tree fell, Clark sprang off of it and super sped in Takeshi's direction, dodging the burst of heat vision that the missing Nin shot at him he moved in close and slapped one of the exploding tags over his eyes, quickly ducking back out before his enemy could touch him and suck up more of his power.

Enraged, Takeshi turned and fired a blind burst of heat vision in roughly the direction he judged Clark to be-.

-Detonating the exploding tag slapped over his eyes.

Empowered by what he had sucked out of Clark, the missing Nin didn't suffer any actual physical damage, but the blast and the flash were enough to disorient him for a moment, a moment that Clark wasted no time taking advantage of.

Moving in, Clark delivered blow after blow, forcing Takeshi back and wearing him down, the missing Nin was slammed up against another tree, then through it, causing it to shatter and fall, letting sunlight stream into the darkness of the forest.

Clark felt his strength return as his body soaked up the light of the sun, recharging his reserves; he noticed however that Takeshi wasn't receiving the same benefits from the sun.

_He couldn't copy that ability, _Clark realized _the ability to absorb sunlight and convert it into Chakra; he's just using what he sucked out of me. I know how I can finish this._

Acting quickly while Takeshi was still getting up, Clark turned and used his heat vision to cut down a large area of forestry behind him, creating a clearing in which the sun was within easy reach, he began casually backing out into the sunlight.

"Impressive," Takeshi assessed, still obviously confused at Clark's action "but what did you gain by that?"

"You'll see," Clark replied with a smirk as he backed further out into the clearing, feeling his strength return more and more by the second.

"Enough of this," Takeshi shouted, going to super speed and throwing a punch at Clark as he reached him.

Clark caught his fist in a gloved hand.

Clark's hand didn't even budge.

"What?" Takeshi shouted in surprise "how?"

"You've seen the powers I have Takeshi," Clark noted "you've even had a taste of what it feels like to wield that kind of power."

Clark turned, swinging Takeshi around by the hand he was gripping, wrapping his other hand around the man's wrist to reinforce his grip as he did and smashed the missing Nin through the granite hand he was summoning to Clark's rear to try and catch him by surprise, stunning the renegade Earth shinobi.

"Tell me something Takeshi," Clark asked as he tightened his grip on the missing Nin's hand until the pain was enough to prevent him from summoning sufficient concentration to form any hand seals "where do you suppose the energy to power all of that comes from?"

"Search-me," Takeshi ground out through the pain.

Clark tilted his head upward momentarily, indicating the sky and the blazing sun overhead.

"The-sun," Takeshi hissed in astonished realization "your power comes from the sun?"

"That's right," Clark replied, making sure to keep his grip on Takeshi's hand painfully tight "I absorb sunlight and turn it into Chakra, and that's the one ability you couldn't copy."

"So then, when you lasered down all those trees, it was to give yourself unrestricted access to the source of your power?"

"Yep," Clark confirmed as he clenched his other hand into a fist and drew back to strike "sleep tight now."

The fist became a blur and brought darkness.

Earth 1

A disused Queen Industries warehouse

"Okay," Oliver noted as he spoke to all of the others present in the room, namely Kara Kent, Chloe Sullivan, Dinah Lance, Arthur Curry, Bart Allen and Victor Stone "I think we all agree that we're going to have to send someone with the second device to actually transport Clark back to our world and it would be best to send a team rather than just one person."

"The question is who to send," Dinah was the first to speak "I'd go if I thought I'd be any help, but my skills are largely my voice, my martial arts and my use of throwing knives, which is fine when you know your enemy, but we don't in this case, we're not even sure there will be fighting involved."

"True," Oliver admitted "I know I'll be going, I have experience with survival in a hostile environment after all, anyone else?"

"I'm going," Chloe volunteered.

"Good, we could use your brains on this," Oliver noted "are you sure?"

"I said I was going didn't I? Clark is my friend and I'm not going to back out on him."

"I guess so," Oliver agreed "anyone else?"

"Me," Kara volunteered "I'm going too."

"Kara-if we can't get Clark back then we need at least one super powerful hero to-."

"No arguments Oliver," Kara cut him off "Clark is my _cousin_, besides, if we appear somewhere like say, the upper atmosphere you're gonna need someone like me to catch you guys."

"Okay," Oliver agreed, reluctantly "you got me on that one."

"I guess I did," Kara noted with a slight smirk.

"Well, we better start getting our gear ready," Oliver noted "as soon as that device finds where Clark is we're moving out."


	4. Chapter 4

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 4**

Earth 2

Tayuya sat on one of the street benches that were scattered throughout Konoha, this particular one out the front of the hospital, deep in thought.

In her hand was a wristwatch, entrusted to her by Clark while he was off helping deal with some bandits, he had asked her to keep it safe for him stating that he didn't want it getting damaged in a fight, and after all Clark had done for her she figured that this was the least she could do in return.

As she sat thinking Tayuya became aware of somebody sitting down next to her, without looking up she greeted her visitor.

"Hi Sakura, you found me again I see."

"You aren't exactly hard to find at the moment," Sakura replied, brushing back her light pink hair as she sat down.

"So, I've been meaning to ask," Tayuya asked the other girl "why is it that you of all people aren't holding a grudge? Over Sasuke I mean."

"The honest truth is that initially I did hold a grudge," Sakura replied "I wanted nothing more than to pound you into a bloody pulp."

"So why didn't you?" Tayuya asked "shit, you could have done so easily with the state I was in."

"Luckily the Hokage made sure to acquaint me with your back story before I actually met you," Sakura replied honestly "I couldn't hate you or stay mad at you once I heard that."

"Sympathy votes," Tayuya noted bitterly.

"Why not?" Sakura asked "what you went through-I have just one word for it-_brutal_."

"Yeah it was," Tayuya agreed as she pocketed the watch "but I can't keep dwelling on it or I'll never be able to move on, just need to figure out what to do with my life now."

"And Naruto and I need to figure out how to get Sasuke back," Sakura noted, her longing to see the Uchiha again obvious in her eyes.

"I'd help you guys as soon as my legs are under me again, but the council might object to that, they did ban me from being a shinobi after all," Tayuya noted regretfully.

"Probably just as well," Sakura decided "after all, it's only a matter of time before Orochimaru figures out that you're still alive, and that it was you who spilled all of his secrets to us, so the further you are away from that snake the safer you are."

Clark was helping move prisoners as the retrieval team took charge of Takeshi and his cohorts, Kiba and Naruto were helping as well, Naruto was his usual cheerful hyperactive self.

"That's thirty less bandits causing trouble," Naruto was saying "we kicked ass."

"Fewer bandits is always a good thing," Clark agreed "always a pleasure to get criminals off the streets."

"I'd say Akamaru and I kicked the most asses," Kiba smirked as he bent down and patted the white dog in question "who's a good boy Akamaru? You're a good boy that's who."

"Yeah right," Naruto shot back "the ones the mutt took down count for him not you Kiba so I got the most."

"Why you- got a problem with my dog huh?"

"No, just you counting the fleabag's victories as your own," Naruto taunted Kiba with a cocky smirk.

"Why I oughta-."

"Enough," the commanding tone of Clark's voice instantly brought both Genin to attention, their quarrel immediately forgotten "we've captured the bandits and their leader, our job will be done once we deliver them to Ibiki back in Konoha, so let's finish the job already."

"Sorry Clark," both Genin replied simultaneously "it won't happen again."

"I hope not," Clark wished firmly "I've already had enough stress for today dealing with Takeshi. I don't need any more thank you."

"Understood," Naruto replied with a big grin and a 'thumbs up' gesture.

Clark rolled his eyes at the sight.

"That means don't insult my dog again shrimp," Kiba told Naruto flatly.

"Kiba," Clark warned in an unyielding tone.

"Sorry," Kiba replied.

"Okay, good," Clark noted as he hoisted the still unconscious Takeshi onto his shoulder "the retrieval team already have their prisoners secured, I've got Takeshi, so let's get going."

Tayuya found herself in deep thought still as she walked on her crutches away from the bench out the front of the hospital; Sakura had headed inside the hospital itself for the training she was now taking from Tsunade.

Tayuya for her part was thinking about what Sakura had said regarding Orochimaru.

'_The further aw__ay from that snake you are the safer you are.'_

And what could be further away than another universe entirely.


	5. Chapter 5

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 5**

"So how was your day?" Clark asked Tayuya, who had ended up in his care it seemed as she was now living in the same apartment that he was, which worked out fine with it having an extra bedroom.

This meant that nobody had to sleep on the couch.

"Had fun on the parallel bars relearning how to walk," Tayuya remarked flippantly "at least it _would _be fun if I were a fucking masochist, oh by the way, here's your father's watch back," the teenager added as she passed the timepiece back to Clark "I kept it safe like you asked."

"Thank you," Clark replied gratefully as he took the watch and put it back on his wrist "I appreciate that. Oh and you shouldn't push yourself so hard on the bars you know," he added sternly "I know you have to push to get your legs working again, but pushing too hard-."

"-Could cause permanent damage, I know," Tayuya replied in irritation "Shit, you sound like Shizune."

"Well she's right you know," Clark noted "why be impatient and risk permanent disablement? You're already progressing at an astonishing rate thanks to the healing jutsus that Tsunade has been administering, where I come from someone with injuries like yours would be two or three months before they're back on their feet."

"I'd go stir crazy if I had to wait that long," Tayuya confided "I hate that sand bitch for doing this to me."

"Don't take this the wrong way Tayuya," Clark replied as tactfully as possible "but Temari was just doing her job, maybe you should bury the hatchet over this."

"I can only think of one place I want to bury _that_ hatchet," Tayuya stated vehemently.

"I can guess," Clark nodded; his tone sardonic "maybe someday you'll change your mind."

"Not anytime soon Spaceman," Tayuya replied flatly "so how was your day?"

"Dealt with some bandits, got the crap kicked out of me by a missing Nin with the ability to absorb the powers of others, I beat the guy though," Clark shrugged "all in all not a bad day if you don't mind getting smacked around."

"So how'd you beat the guy?"

"Well, we were fighting in a forest, and that left me cut off from the sun that recharges me," Clark replied "this meant that that him leeching off of me was proving to be a problem, but as it turned out he didn't get my ability to absorb sunlight to recharge, so I took a leaf out of Temari's copy book, but with heat vision instead of wind giving me a nice big clearing where I had ready access to the sun, after that beating him was fairly simple, I still had to be careful of his absorbing power though."

"Hmm, not sure how I feel about you using Temari's tactics," Tayuya replied "but I'm not exactly one to talk, I probably would've done the same if I had heat vision."

"If it's a good tactic it's a good tactic," Clark surmised with a shrug "but I don't need to tell _you_ that do I?"

"No, you don't," Tayuya agreed "by the way I've been thinking about something Clark."

"Oh? What exactly?" Clark asked; his curiosity stirred.

"About your offer," Tayuya noted "to take me back to your world and help me start a new life there."

"And-?"

"And I'm seriously considering the idea," Tayuya replied "for one thing it would give me a fresh start, and for another-well there's still the matter of what is likely to happen if Orochimaru finds out I'm still alive."

"In other words, witness protection," Clark noted lightly "you know, if you do decide to go through with that idea and you need a place to stay my place is available, nice big farm, plenty of space."

"You don't mind putting up with a foulmouthed bitch like me?" Tayuya asked jokingly.

"I put up with Lois Lane living there," Clark informed the young girl "I think I can put up with you, of course Lois isn't so much foulmouthed as she just never shuts up, and she seems to get her jollies bustin' my chops."

"Sounds like things are likely to be very interesting," Tayuya noted with a half smile.

"Lois is-easier to put up with than she used to be," Clark noted "I haven't had her burst in on me in the shower lately for one thing."

The feisty teen's eyes narrowed disapprovingly at the mention of that.

"If Chatterbox Lane does that to me I'll kick her ass," Tayuya vowed.


	6. Chapter 6

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 6**

Earth 1

Chloe was busy tracking down leads on a story for the Daily Planet about a string of gangland killing that had been committed recently in Metropolis to try and take her mind off of how worried she was about Clark but so far the frustrating lack of any definite evidence regarding the actual perpetrators was not helping her already stressed state of mind since his disappearance.

"Hi there beautiful," the voice belonged to her beau Jimmy Olsen, and while seeing him was always an occurrence Chloe enjoyed he had started getting suspicious about Clark being nowhere to be found for the last three weeks.

_Three weeks, _Chloe thought to herself _has it really been three weeks?_

It had indeed been that long, four days since they decided three of the people who were going to get Clark back, and three since Lana had insisted on going as well when she heard that particular detail of the rescue plan.

"Are you okay?" Jimmy asked "you seem distracted."

"Oh-yeah," Chloe assured her lover and workmate "just thinking about some things."

"Worried about Clark huh?" Jimmy asked "me too, I wish I knew what's happened to him."

_I wish I could tell you, _Chloe thought to herself _but Clark trusted me with his secret and I'm not going to betray that trust._

"Yeah, I am," Chloe confirmed _I hope we can get him back _she added silently_._

"Oh and by the way, the police found a body last night," Jimmy added "some woman by the name of Patricia Swann, apparently she was shot in the head and dumped in the lake."

_Patricia Swann, _Chloe thought uneasily, she recognized the name immediately _oh no, Lex must be behind this, I'm sure of it. I may have to blow off the story about the mob killings if he got her locket__._

"Did you say she was shot?" Chloe asked, seeking confirmation.

"Yeah," Jimmy confirmed "initially I heard that she had drowned, but Lois updated me on that, surprising that the guys pulling a dead woman out of the lake would miss something as obvious as a bullet hole in the left side of her forehead."

"The investigators didn't happen to find a locket on her body did they?" Chloe asked "blue ceramic with a white swan design on it?"

"I don't think so," Jimmy replied "but come to think of it when I looked at the morgue photo I did see a welt on her neck where one might have been torn off, Lois and I are heading over to Luthorcorp to try and find some leads, I'd ask you as well but you seem to have your hands full with your own work and whatever Oliver Queen has you doing."

_Lex or whoever he sent must have taken the locket and the key inside, _Chloe surmised _this is bad, looks like the mob story is going to have to take a back seat for a while._

"Actually I think I might come with you guys," Chloe offered cheerfully, trying not to show how worried she was "if I get to share the byline that is."

"You'll have to discuss that with Lois," Jimmy noted uneasily.

"I think I can convince my cousin Jimmy," Chloe stated with absolute confidence "Just leave the negotiations to me."

"Oliver isn't gonna get upset with you ditching whatever he has you doing is he?" Jimmy asked.

"I'll give him a call and let him know," Chloe assured him.

Earth 2

Tayuya sat in a chair in front of the Hokage's desk, having walked there on her own, without the need for crutches, finally she had gotten enough strength back into her legs to walk without them, even if she did tire quickly and still couldn't move any faster that a slow jog.

"You wanted to see me?" she asked, this being one of those rare occasions when Tayuya actually refrained from cursing and used her manners.

"Yes I did," Tsunade, the fifth Hokage of Konoha confirmed "first I wanted to say that I'm impressed with the courage you showed in voluntarily providing us with information on your former lord Orochimaru once you got to see his true colors, and second-."

"And?" Tayuya prompted when Tsunade paused.

"And I wanted to express my concern over what might happen should Orochimaru learn that you are still alive," Tsunade finished "I was trying to find a way to say it without alarming you by the way."

"It's okay," Tayuya replied, unfazed "it's occurred to me as well, you know, Clark offered to take me back to his world and help me start a new life there."

"I think you should take him up on that offer," Tsunade suggested sincerely "for one thing you would be as safe from Orochimaru as you could possibly be, and for another you'd have the option of becoming one of that world's 'superheroes' as they call them there. If you wish to that is."

"Okay, so I'll take Clark up on his offer," Tayuya decided "but what if the snake pedophile learns of the other universe and finds a way to get there?"

"We'll need to fake your death," Tsunade decided "or rather make it look like you actually did die under those logs and that your body is still there, we need a substitute cadaver to plant at the scene, one that looks exactly like you, it'd need to essentially be a copy of you created for that very purpose."

"That'd work if you could create a convincing enough duplicate," Tayuya agreed "as long as Orochimaru hasn't already found out about my missing corpse that is."

"He doesn't know you survived," Tsunade assured her "since the day of Sasuke's defection and your injury I've had scouts watching the border and the forest near it like a hawk and nobody from the Sound has come near it, the bodies of your former teammates are still lying where they died."

"I want to go out there and give them decent burials," Tayuya stated sadly "but that might give away that I'm still alive, why not retrieve them to try and glean a few secrets from them though?"

"Any secrets held in those bodies are not ones we care to learn of," Tsunade replied flatly "and Orochimaru no doubt knows that, after all he is known for using a large number of forbidden jutsus."

"Point taken," Tayuya nodded "so how do we go about creating my duplicate?"

"That's the complicated part," Tsunade noted thoughtfully "no technology or jutsu available in our world can create the kind of permanent duplicate necessary for this, but technology from Clark's world-."

"-Might just be able to do it," Tayuya finished, catching on "I'll ask him about it."


	7. Chapter 7

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series 'Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

Oh btw, as you'll probably notice in this chapter I've included an actual scene from the season 7 Smallville episode 'Veritas' after all, events back home aren't going to stand still just because Clark is lost in another universe.

The dialogue written here for the scene in question is pretty much word for word with just two or three minor changes in the scene indicating that the timeline is shifting from what it was in normal Smallville continuity to what it will ultimately become due to the timelines of Earth 1 and Earth 2 crossing over, see if you can spot the changes.

**Chapter 7**

Earth 1

The Luthor mansion in Smallville

Alexander 'Lex' Luthor sat at his desk in his study in the mansion that his father had transported stone by stone from Scotland, in his left hand was a blue ceramic locket with a white swan design on the front, he had a tissue in his other hand that he was using to clean blood from the surface of the piece of jewelry in question.

The door to his study opened and Lex's aide, Gina walked in.

"All of the tracks have been covered Mr. Luthor" Gina assured him as she entered his study "no one will ever be able to trace the locket back to you."

Lex nodded absently as he finished cleaning the locket, placing it on the desk as he stood up and looked out the stained glass window behind his desk.

The locket would have been his sooner if not for those infernal blackouts leading up to the big one that had left half of Metropolis without power for nearly six hours.

He had originally planned to use the same hit man he had used to take out his cloned brother Grant Gabriel AKA Julian Luthor's clone, but in the first of those blackouts that man had fallen down a flight of stairs in the darkness and broken his neck.

It had taken Lex nearly three weeks to find another to replace him, and it had taken the assassin in question another four days to find Ms Swann and put a bullet in her head, then subsequently retrieve the locket she carried and the key inside it, but it was his now.

"I don't need to remind you-," Lex began, but Gina answered before he had finished speaking.

"Absolute secrecy," she assured him "After this many years, trust me. I understand the magnitude of this moment."

"It's funny," Lex mused thoughtfully as one particular design on the stained glass window caught his attention "all those global treasure hunts and cave excavations and the secret of Veritas was so much closer than I thought."

"I suppose it's poetic in a way," Gina noted in an equally thoughtful and somewhat nervous tone "most things we spend our lives searching for usually are right in front of us"

She paused a moment as Lex sat down and then continued.

"There is one thing I don't quite understand, you say you've been searching your whole life but I thought you didn't learn about Veritas until recently."

Gina's expression spoke of mild confusion.

"I've always known my father was covering a secret," Lex replied without hesitation "a secret of cryptic symbols and mystic stones, I just didn't know it had a name."

"And what was it," Gina asked "the final piece?"

"My own memory," Lex replied, a ghost of a smile flickering across his face "after the first meteor shower there were years I blocked out. But ever since I was shot in Detroit I keep having flashes of things I've forgotten."

"And that's how you remembered that," Gina realized as she nodded in the direction of the blue locket that was now back in Lex's hand, Lex glanced at it as well, long repressed memories flashing through his mind as he remembered something from his childhood.

He opened the locket, taking out the key inside and passing it to Gina as she stood in front of the desk.

"Find the bank this key belongs to," Lex instructed.

"Sir," she protested "that could take months."

"Try 24 hours," Lex corrected "it's in Zurich."

Gina nodded and immediately went to carry out his instructions.

Lex sat back in his chair, thinking, he had a pretty good theory as to who the traveler those keys held the secret to controlling actually was, a certain someone who had been missing for the past three weeks.

_And when he gets back, _Lex decided _I'll have a surprise waiting for him._

Earth 2

"Clark," the unmistakable voice of Uzumaki Naruto, the leaf village's number one surprising ninja crackled over Clark's earpiece "Clark can you hear me?"

"I hear you Naruto," Clark assured the spiky haired blonde Genin "I see our target inside that bush about ten meters in front of me."

"God I wish I had X-Ray vision," Naruto prayed in slight amusement.

"It has its moments," Clark agreed, smiling slightly.

"I'll bet it does perv," Sakura's voice crackled over his earpiece in a loud screech.

"Ow," Clark complained, rubbing his ringing ear "Sakura, super hearing remember. Oh and by the way, I _don't _use it like that; it only works when I focus anyhow."

"So I don't need to wear lead lined clothes then," Sakura noted, somewhat calmer "are you sure you've never used it like that?"

"Well once accidentally when the ability first manifested," Clark admitted reluctantly, the heat rising in his cheeks as he did "and another time under the influence of red K, but no, no lead lined clothes are needed around me, but you might need em around Neji though," he added with a chuckle.

"You really think he's a perv don't you?" Sakura asked Clark rhetorically.

"Why else would he be so intense all the time," Clark bit back "other than using his Byakugan to peek through girl's clothing that is."

"Hmm," Sakura thought for a moment "you may be right."

"Anyhow," Clark stated authoritatively "back to the task at hand."

"So do we surround the bush and grab the target as it comes out?" Naruto asked.

"And scare the poor cat half to death?" Clark asked "let's try and get it back to its owner without giving it a heart attack."

"Well then," Sakura asked "what's the move boss?"

"Are you forgetting that I grew up on a farm and know quite a bit about animals?" Clark asked the young Kunoichi "watch and learn kids, this is how you gain an animal's trust."

Clark smoothly moved from his hiding place to a location near the bush, taking a small tin of cat food out of his pocket, he opened it using the ring pull on the lid and placed it in front of the bush.

Clark then moved to another location in front of a tree that was in plain sight of the bush that the cat was hiding in and waited.

After about twenty minutes the cat in the bush poked her head out and began to sneak toward the food cautiously, until she reached it and began to eat.

"Here puss," Clark called softly as he crept toward the cat on his hands and knees, the cat shied away slightly "it's okay, I won't hurt you," he continued in the most reassuring voice he could manage.

Clark waited until the cat was eating again, then he crept a little closer, pausing each time the cat shied away until he was within arm's reach of the nervous feline, he held out his hand to the cat and waited.

Clark held perfectly still until the cat got over its fear and was overtaken by its curiosity, walking tentatively toward Clark's hand it took a cautious sniff at his fingers.

Moving as slowly and non threateningly as possible Clark gave the cat a light tickle under its jaw.

The cat hesitated for a moment; then rubbed up against Clark's fingers.

"There's a good kitty," Clark said in the same soft, non threatening voice as he began to brush the cat for a while until she seemed to trust him enough, then scooped her up in his arms, as gently as possible, the cat sat there purring loudly.

Both Naruto and Sakura were watching wide eyed, they'd never seen this cat act so tame before, Naruto seemed to be trying to pick his chin up off of the ground.

Sakura was the first to speak.

"Is-that-Tora?" she managed to ask, Clark immediately checked, just to be sure.

"Yep," Clark confirmed "ribbon on the left ear, its Tora all right."

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**Shugokage: thanks for the reviews you've written so far, I'll do my best to keep writing a story people like.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

Another 'Veritas' scene is included in this chapter; this one is more heavily altered though.

**Chapter 8**

Earth 2

As Clark and the two Genin who currently comprised Team 7 delivered the cat back to its owner Clark couldn't help but notice that it was clinging to him for dear life as soon as it caught sight of the rotund woman they were asked to find it for, and when he tried to pass the cat back to its owner Clark found he had quite a job to unhook its claws from his jacket.

Kakashi, who had been observing the retrieval of the pet in question so as to gauge Clark's leadership capabilities was watching in amusement as this scene played out, that cat did not want to let go, not that Kakashi could blame it with what he knew about this particular cat's owner.

Ultimately the woman in question yanked the cat off of Clark, causing it's claws to rip small pieces out of his jacket in the process as it was hauled yowling into the arms of its owner.

"Oh my Tora, I'm so happy to see you again," the woman gushed happily, squeezing the cat so hard that Clark couldn't help but wince in sympathy for the poor animal.

"No wonder the cat ran away," he remarked sympathetically.

"What did you say young man?" the woman asked in an offended tone, her eyes narrowing imperiously.

"Oh boy," Kakashi commented somewhere behind Clark.

"I said I can see why the poor cat ran away," Clark repeated with conviction "just look how roughly you're handling her, cats don't like to be squeezed that tight, to be honest I'd run away too."

"Just what would you know about it?" the woman challenged angrily.

"More than you obviously," Clark replied without hesitation "as it so happens I grew up on a farm and I know quite a bit about animals, _and I don't like to see them mistreated._"

Clark turned on his heel and stalked off seething with anger and muttering about cruelty to animals as he went he left the cat's obnoxious owner pale faced with fear behind him.

When Clark passed Kakashi, Sakura and Naruto they could all see that his eyes were glowing red with anger and they could hear his teeth grinding in a manner that vaguely reminded them of Tayuya when she was angry.

"Hey Clark, wait up," Sakura called as she ran after him.

"What do you want?" Clark asked, a little calmer than before as the red glow in his eyes began to fade.

"That was awesome what you did back there," Sakura praised him with a half grin "and the glowing eyes really sold it too, it's about time somebody threw the fear of god into that nasty witch."

"I lost my temper," Clark replied, a little ashamed that he had done so "sometimes my eyes glow like that when I'm really angry and feel like frying someone with my heat vision, it's just that I don't like to see people ill treating animals, either through a mean spirited nature or through ignorance."

"I have to agree with Sakura though," Kakashi added as he too caught up "you certainly stood up for what's right back there; I hope we don't get a complaint because of it though."

"What would you do if we did get one?" Clark asked quietly.

"Well personally I'd tell that woman to stuff it in this case," Kakashi told Clark, smiling under his mask as he patted the Kryptonian on the shoulder "as far as I'm concerned you did what was right, it's not my decision though, it's the Hokage's."

"You know," Sakura noted with a dangerous smirk "it's just as well that I'm not Kryptonian, I'd probably have barbequed that bitch if I was."

Behind them Naruto (who had heard that last remark) shuddered with horror at the thought of a Kryptonian Sakura.

Earth 1

Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and Chloe Sullivan currently stood in hallway outside Lionel Luthor's office on the fortieth floor of the Luthorcorp building waiting, disguised as employees of the gardening contractor service that took care of the indoor plants in the place, white caps, white trousers, green shirts; the works.

As they waited they busied themselves with caring for the plants so as to keep up appearances, their journalist's equipment sat waiting to be used in a nearby chair, or in Chloe's case in her pocket.

After a while the man they were waiting for, Lionel Luthor walked in the door, and the three were immediately off after him, Jimmy grabbed his camera, Lois her file folder, and Chloe took out her digital recorder and switched it on.

Lois was in the lead, catching up to Lionel first.

"Mr. Luthor," she called as she caught up "do you have any comment on the death of Patricia Swann?"

As she spoke Jimmy was snapping photo after photo, and Chloe moved in closer with the recorder.

"Put that camera down," Lionel protested angrily, shielding his eyes from the flash "put it down, the recorder too."

Jimmy stopped taking pictures, but didn't put the camera down right away, Chloe lowered the recorder.

"Put it down," Lionel repeated in a calmer tone of voice in Jimmy's direction.

After a moment Jimmy complied.

"Very resourceful," Lionel praised Lois on her method of gaining access to Luthorcorp, also directing that praise at Chloe "I realize that an appointment or press conference would be too conventional for you Miss Lane; or you for that matter Miss Sullivan, but-."

"Oh come on," Lois retorted smugly "you wouldn't take an interview with either of us if your life depended on it."

"I think Lex and Lionel are both allergic to interviews with you or I Lo," Chloe added in an equally smug tone.

"So what makes you think I'll respond to an ambush?" Lionel asked lightly.

"This is your chance to tell the truth," Jimmy offered seriously.

"The truth?" Lionel asked, slightly confused.

"About Patricia Swann," Chloe supplied with an arched brow for emphasis.

"Before you're hauled away for murder," Lois added challengingly.

"Let's not jump to conclusions Lois," Chloe suggested "remember; Lex is just as much a suspect here."

"Hmm, yeah I guess you're right about that Chlo," Lois admitted "but let's get the skinny on Lionel first."

"Hauled away for murder?" Lionel asked incredulously, laughing in mild amusement "I can't decide, is it boundless courage you have Miss Lane or is it incorrigible stupidity?"

"Potato, potato," Lois shot back as if it really didn't matter which one it was, and to her it probably didn't "you were the last person to speak with Swann before the poor woman ended up sucking pond water."

"All right," Lionel replied coldly "this clever conversation is now over."

Lionel turned and continued toward his office.

"Suit yourself," Lois responded as she followed him in true Lois Lane form she wasn't taking 'no' for an answer "but I'm not gonna be the only one asking questions."

"According to the coroner records you had five calls in one day from a woman who was previously sequestered overseas," Jimmy added "following that numerous other calls from her leading right up to the day she ended up dead."

"Business calls," Lionel replied calmly "evidence of a business transaction, which it was."

"Oh I don't doubt that," Lois smiled back as she reached into her file folder; Jimmy grabbed the photos inside as she was taking them out in his impatience, showing them to Lionel.

"Look," Jimmy stated impatiently "every photo ever taken of Patricia Swann shows her wearing this family locket. Now not only was this locket missing when they fished her out of the lake but there was a burn right here on her neck where the chain was forcibly removed."

Lois glanced meaningfully at Lionel, daring him to come back with something.

Lionel took the second photo from Jimmy, Patricia's morgue photo, looking at it thoughtfully for a long moment.

"Very sad," he finally replied "my heart goes out to her family."

"Mr. Luthor-," Lois protested, Lionel cut her off.

"If that is all from the three musketeers," he glanced meaningfully at Lois and Jimmy "security will be very happy to help you two find your way out," his gaze then settled on Chloe "Miss Sullivan, may I speak with you privately for a moment."

"I think I can spare that," Chloe replied as she switched off her digital recorder and pocketed it "as long as you're not going to make more excuses for your treatment of Clark that is."

"Chloe-?" Lois asked, her tone uncertain.  
"I'll be fine Lois," Chloe insisted "go on, I'll meet up with you later."

"If you say so," Lois relented as she turned and followed Jimmy out.

"Now," Chloe asked turning back to Lionel "back to the matter at hand, Lex was behind Miss Swann's death wasn't he? And she was killed for the locket around her neck containing a very specific key right?"

"That is correct," Lionel confirmed as he removed a gold locket from around his neck "I have the other locket," he opened the locket revealing the key inside which he then passed to Chloe "and the other key, I understand that Clark has taken you into his confidence."

"Yes," Chloe confirmed, understanding what Lionel was driving at immediately "he has."

"Good," Lionel nodded, breathing an obvious sigh of relief "you must make sure that this key gets to Clark when next you see him, I understand that he is missing at the moment."

"Yes," Chloe confirmed "he is."

"Would you be willing to share any information regarding that?"

"Clark is-elsewhere," Chloe told him "I'm sorry Mr. Luthor but I can't tell you more than that."

"Okay," Lionel relented "but you must make sure Clark gets that key, this is important, those two keys hold the secret to a device that will give Lex control over him, I'll keep the locket that contained it and act as a decoy."

"Okay," Chloe agreed, still distrusting, but clearly understanding the importance of this "I can do that; I'll make sure that Clark gets this."

"That would be best," Lionel agreed "that is all Miss Sullivan."


	9. Chapter 9

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 9**

Earth 2

It was the day after the cat retrieval, Clark was up early and fixing breakfast for himself and Tayuya as he got ready to head out on a mission Tsunade had given him late the previous day, he was to meet up with Hyuuga Neji and Yui Kurenai at 8:00 AM this morning prior to commencing the mission.

After that they would all head to Tanzuka town.

He also remembered Tsunade relating that the woman they had retrieved the cat for was a satisfied customer but for some reason was looking thoroughly chastised when she entered the Hokage's office and had commented that she was never going to mistreat her cat again.

Clark had found it difficult to keep a smirk off his face when he had heard that, but at least there hadn't been a complaint.

As he was fixing breakfast Clark found himself reflecting upon the foods that were traditionally eaten in this world, he had found that the cuisine available here was quite interesting, very similar to what was traditional in the Asian nations of his own world.

He'd taken quite a liking to miso soup for breakfast during the last three weeks, Anko had introduced him to dangos, and of course Naruto had convinced him to try ramen, he'd also eaten sushi, tempura and sashimi many times since arriving here.

Right at the minute however he was heating up some miso soup on the stove, enough for both himself and Tayuya, if he knew her routine correctly (which he was pretty sure he did by now) she'd be up any minute now.

Once the miso was hot enough he poured it into two bowls; which he then set on the table with a spoon by each, then sat down in front of his and made a start on it.

He was about halfway through his soup when true to form the door to Tayuya's room slid open and the petite redhead walked sleepily out into the kitchen/dining room still in her sleepwear, stretching and yawning, her hair thoroughly mussed.

Taking in that sight Clark was once again reminded of just how young she was, it was hard to imagine her having the dark past she had at times like this.

_Don't call her cute, _Clark reminded himself _don't call her cute, she hates that remember._

It was hard to forget actually, the first, last and only time he had ever made the mistake of calling Tayuya cute she'd been pissed at him for the next hour and a half.

"Your miso's ready," Clark told her as he paused in eating his "on the table waiting for you, it's still hot."

"Thanks," Tayuya nodded sleepily as she sat down to her miso soup and made a start on it.

They sat eating for a while in companionable silence, after a while Tayuya paused and spoke.

"I spoke with Tsunade yesterday," she told Clark.

"What did she want to talk about?" Clark asked, his curiosity needing to be satisfied.

"Well firstly she gave me a pat on the back for having the guts to rat on Orochimaru," Tayuya noted "she also expressed her concern over what might happen if the bastard finds out I'm still alive. I told her about the offer you made and she thinks I should take you up on it, so when you go back to your world I've decided I'm going back with you, and living on a big quiet farm sounds nice so if your place is still available I think I'll stay there."

"It's available," Clark assured the teenager "though I should warn you that Smallville isn't _entirely _peaceful, there's always the occasional Krypto powered nutcase wreaking havoc on the town."

"Perfect," Tayuya smiled "I can keep my skills sharp."

Clark shook his in amusement, chuckling to himself as he did, that statement really shouldn't have come as a surprise he realized.

"Did you discuss anything else?" Clark asked.

"Yeah," Tayuya added "we also discussed what might happen if my asshole of a former master found out about your world and found a way there, we pretty much agreed that we need to fake my death to throw the sick fucker off the trail should that happen, basically we need to make it look like I died under those logs and make it appear that I'm still there."

"In other words we need a suitable corpse to put under those logs," Clark realized "and it'd need to look exactly like you."

"An exact duplicate," Tayuya nodded as she took another sip of her miso "this world doesn't have the tech or the justsu's to create something like that, but Tsunade thought that your world might."

"Thirty three point one," Clark murmured in sudden realization.

"What the hell is Thirty three point one?" Tayuya asked, her brow furrowing in confusion.

"Project thirty three point one," Clark replied "it's a code designation that Lex Luthor used at one time for all of his 'secret' i.e. illegal research projects, involving genetic experimentation on humans, usually of the metahuman or krypto powered persuasion, and even-cloning."

"That sick bastard is sounding more like Orochimaru by the second," Tayuya noted in disgust "okay, so we steal some of Lex's cloning tech, then what? How long would it take to create a suitable clone?"

"From what Lana told me Lex has a device that can 'construct' a full mature, or in your case fully teenage clone in a matter of hours," Clark told her "she used such a clone to fake her own death not too long ago in order to get out from under Lex's thumb, however, the clones produced by that specific process come to term, shall we say-stillborn, which is why Lex abandoned research into that particular cloning method."

"In other words they're dead when they come out of the cloning chamber," Tayuya surmised "that's not gonna be a problem though and it'll probably work in our favor, but did you say Lana faked her death to get out from under Lex's thumb?"

"Yeah," Clark replied in a voice that spoke of him not liking the situation that had made that necessary "she ended up married to that bald jackass and later regretted it."

For a moment Tayuya just stared at Clark, as if trying to figure out whether he had actually said what she thought he had said, finally she spoke.

"What the fuck did she see in him?" Tayuya asked in disbelief.

"She was tricked just like you were," Clark replied simply "and coerced as well, it happens even to the best of us, as you already know."

"I guess so," Tayuya agreed "that makes sense I guess, I hope Lana can remember where Lex kept his cloning toys though."


	10. Chapter 10

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 10**

Clark had been sent to help capture a murderer in a Tanzuka town and would likely be gone for a good portion of the day leaving Tayuya on her own for the day, there wasn't much for her to do so she decided to find a quiet spot and get in some flute practice.

As she sat practicing Tayuya found that a few people stopped to listen to the melody, and from the looks on their faces they thought that she was pretty good with a flute.

_Okay, _Tayuya thought with a smirk _looks like I have an audience, one that gets to live this time, in that case let's see if I can impress them enough that they'll be talking about my music for ages to come._

Tayuya paused for a moment, then began to play the most complicated non genjutsu melody she knew, one that would _really _demonstrate her skill with the musical instrument of her choice, the assembled listeners all listened, totally rapt as she seemed to produce the beautiful music so effortlessly.

As she finished the piece her small but very attentive audience broke into applause, this was one of the rare occasions that Tayuya actually found herself blushing.

"Play another," somebody called out.

_Ah what the hell, _Tayuya thought to herself _why not?_

However, as she was putting the flute to her lips a large group of shinobi ran past, among them Tayuya recognized a number that she knew were skilled in water style ninjutsu, and they seemed to be in a hurry, this stirred her curiosity, even as an ominous feeling settled in the pit of her stomach.

Lowering her flute and putting it away she ran after them as fast as she could on her recently healed legs, as she did she began to pick up the smell of smoke and before long an apartment building came into view, smoke and flames were leaking out of nearly every one of its windows.

The shinobi Tayuya had seen before were all fighting the blaze, using water style jutsus to draw water from any available source and direct it onto the flames, they were keeping it contained, but it would be a while before they managed to put it out and the flames were quickly spreading to the upper floors as well.

For a moment Tayuya was frozen with fear, images of the village of her birth in flames flashing through her mind; then she snapped out of it as a specific sound reached her ears.

It was a woman apparently a young mother calling out desperately somewhere off to her left.

"My baby," the woman screamed, tears in her eyes as one of the shinobi from before tried to restrain her so as to keep her from running back into the flames "please, my son is still in there, let me save him."

As soon as she heard that Tayuya knew she had to put her fears and doubts aside, she remembered what it had felt like to lose her mother to the bandits, how that had torn her apart inside, and now here was a mother about to lose her child if nobody did anything.

_To hell with being afraid _Tayuya told herself sternly as she steeled her will _to hell with feeling sorry for myself and doubting myself that shit aint me, if I want to be a better person-a hero, then now's the time to start being that hero._

Tayuya took a few deep breaths to try and get her shaking under control, then called out to the woman in what she hoped was a brave sounding and reassuring voice.

"Don't worry; I'll find him for you."

Then, pushing her fear down as hard as she could Tayuya ran into the burning building with one of the shinobi who were fighting the blaze desperately trying to catch up with her in order to keep her from doing something so borderline suicidal, however as she entered the inferno he stopped his pursuit.

Tayuya had something in mind that would allow her to get through those flames alive, a technique she was already using when she plunged into that hell of flames and smoke and heat and noise, the same technique that had allowed her to survive having a forest dropped on her by Temari.

All truly advanced shinobi knew a technique that allowed them to block a steel blade or similarly powerful melee weapon with their bare arm or hand if the need should arise.

This was done by focusing Chakra into that part of the body, allowing it to block the strike as though it was made of steel, and reducing the damage done from a severed limb to a minor gash, Tayuya knew this technique herself of course.

When Temari had brought the forest down on her Tayuya had, in her desperation to survive combined that technique with what barrier ninjutsu she could manage on her own and applied it to her entire body in order to shield herself from fatal injury.

Because of this the logs, all of which had landed on top of her legs while she was still conscious had still caused plenty of muscle damage doing so but the _bones_ in Tayuya's legs hadn't actually fractured until _after_ she had lost consciousness and was unable to maintain her spur of the moment technique any longer.

This technique had saved her from being squashed, but the strain from using it meant that it should be used only when absolutely necessary, after all, although her cracked ribs had come from a log hitting her there, the concussion she had suffered in that incident had in fact not come from a blow to the head, neither had her loss of consciousness.

The hemorrhaging in her lungs had happened a half minute before that, when she had taken one of Temari's wind blasts to her chest.

As it was now Tayuya could feel the strain from using the jutsu that she now called her Chakra Armor building in her head as this technique kept her from suffering life threatening burns, she was going to have a headache after this; that was for sure.

As she climbed floor after floor Tayuya finally heard the sound of a young child crying.

"Stay calm," she called loudly over the roar of the flames "it'll be okay, I'm gonna get you out of here, but you're gonna have to keep making some noise so I can find you okay."

"Save me, please," the child speaking couldn't have been much older than three, Tayuya moved in the direction of the voice as fast as she dared until finally she was right beside the terrified toddler and scooped him up.

"Hold on tight okay," she told the child, extending her Chakra armor to protect him too as he complied with her instructions "It's time to get out of this hellhole."

Tayuya began heading toward the nearest window, but as she was halfway there she heard the ceiling above her begin to give way, acting on instinct she crouched low over the child she was rescuing, shielding him from the flaming debris falling on both of them with her own body.

The agony that Tayuya felt in that moment was blindingly intense as the small bits of burning wood seared her back in spite of her Chakra Armor, she cried out in agony as her skin was scorched, fighting the urge to vomit or pass out from the pain.

Pulling herself shakily to her feet, Tayuya ran the rest of the way to the window, kicking out what was left of the already shattered glass, then, focusing Chakra into the soles of her feet she stepped one foot out the window until that foot made contact with the outside of the building, then her other leg once the first stuck to the surface, and then she leaned forward until she was crouching on the side of the building.

Standing 'up' Tayuya began running down the side of the burning building, dodging jets of flame that emerged from shattered windows and cracks in the wall and clinging on to the young boy she carried as she went.

The strain from using this technique combined with her Chakra Armor was really making her head pound and black spots were starting to appear in front of her eyes as her recently healed legs felt like they were on fire from the strain she was putting on them.

What was worse, Tayuya could hear the structure of the building starting to creak, and she could feel it shifting under her, she put on an extra burst of speed, the sooner she was off this death trap the better.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity Tayuya reached the ground, quickly getting a safe distance from the now nearly gutted apartment complex she somehow managed in spite of what she had just gone through to find the strength to shakily walk up to the boy's mother, her legs threatening to give out the whole way.

"Here," Tayuya told her gently as she passed the woman's son to her "I saved him just like I said I would."

"Thank you," the woman praised Tayuya as she hugged her son "thank you so much."

As this was happening Tayuya was aware of a couple of medic Nin running in her direction carrying a stretcher as they came.

A moment later Tayuya heard a loud crash behind her as the stricken building finally collapsed, she could feel her own strength starting to give out on her too.

_Holy shit, _Tayuya thought as her vision began to grow dark around the edges; _that was too fucking close._

Then Tayuya felt her knees give way underneath her as everything went black.


	11. Chapter 11

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 11**

The first thing that Tayuya was aware of as she regained consciousness was that she was lying in a hospital bed, not that such a thing was surprising, her back was healed but still felt tender, she was stiff and sore and she still had a bit of a headache, but on the whole she was feeling a lot better than she had just prior to losing consciousness.

The next thing she became aware of was that the hospital sheets were the only thing covering her, underneath them she was naked, raising her head a little and turning it to the right she caught sight of a clean set of clothes sitting on the small dressing table beside the bed along with her flute.

The curtain was drawn and she was the only one on this side of it so she got out of bed, moving stiffly due to her aching muscles and got dressed in the clothes that had been left for her, but those clothes didn't include shoes she noted, apparently Tsunade didn't want her leaving the hospital just yet.

Just how badly had she been hurt?

"Tayuya," the voice calling to her from the other side of the curtain was Clark's voice "are you awake?"

"Yeah, I'm awake Clark," Tayuya called back "come to get my lazy ass up eh?"

"From the sounds of it you're up already," Clark observed; a smile audible in his voice "are you decent?"

"I'm clothed if that's what you mean," Tayuya replied "come on in Clark, I could use the company."

"Thank god you're okay," Clark said with obvious relief as he pushed the curtain aside and walked up beside the bed "I was really worried about you when I heard what happened, I got back here as quickly as I could, from what I heard you were in rough shape when they brought you in here."

"Why is it that you care so much about me Clark?" Tayuya asked, her brow furrowing in curiosity "besides compassion that is."

"Well," Clark replied after a moment's thought "I guess it's because I identify with some of what you've been through and are still going through and also I've come to think of you as family, you're like a little sister to me."

"I think I can live with that," Tayuya replied with a genuine smile "I've actually come to think of you as family too Clark, it's nice to have a family again, and having a big brother like you is pretty damn cool."

"I can't wait to introduce you to my Mom and my cousin," Clark smiled "and to Lana as well, they're great people, and I'm sure they'll like you little sis."

"I'm okay with you callin' me sis," Tayuya smirked "but drop the 'little' okay, and if you decide to call me 'little sis' anyhow you'd better not lead with 'cute.'"

"Oh I learned my lesson about calling you cute;" Clark assured the young girl who had become family to him "having you mad at me isn't exactly a pleasant experience."

"I can actually make a hero nervous," Tayuya noted smugly "how about that."

"You realize you're a hero yourself now sis?" Clark reminded her "you were willing to risk your life to save somebody you didn't even know, can't get more heroic than that," Clark smiled warmly at Tayuya "I'm so proud of you."

For a moment Tayuya was too choked up with emotion to speak, the whole time she was with Orochimaru, never once had he said he was proud of her, but Clark had, and he'd shown her more kindness and brotherly love inside three weeks than Orochimaru could have shown anybody in his entire life.

"Thanks-Clark," Tayuya finally managed to say "you have no idea just how much that means to me."

"Hasn't anybody ever said they were proud of you before?" Clark asked, shocked that this would be so.

"My Mom might have, but I was too young to remember," Tayuya replied "you're the first that I can remember, Orochimaru certainly never said anything like that the heartless bastard."

"That's a shame," Clark replied "but I am proud of you sis, and I will always believe in you."

"Y'know," Tayuya mused thoughtfully "saving lives, I could get used to that."

"It feels good doesn't it?" Clark asked rhetorically.

"It's fucking awesome," Tayuya declared happily "to know that someone is alive and can live a full and prosperous life when they otherwise would be dead, and to know that it's thanks to you? That's the best feeling in the whole damn world."

"And as long as the person you saved doesn't turn out to be an utter bastard like Lex Luthor it keeps right on feeling good too," Clark added.

"Wait, you saved Lex's life?" Tayuya asked, her brow furrowing slightly in thought.

"First life I ever saved," Clark replied with a nod "he was still a decent person back then, unfortunately the influence of his father Lionel Luthor was too strong, I saved his life but I couldn't save him from sliding into darkness."

"I guess none of us are really born evil," Tayuya surmised with a sigh "so I guess Lionel is as much of a bastard as Lex?"

"Back in the day he was," Clark confirmed "he's-mellowed in recent years, still a bastard though, just not as much of one."

"Yeah," Tayuya nodded "but Lex isn't just a bastard from what I can understand, he's an ungrateful bastard, you saved his life and how did he repay you? By having you investigated behind your back."

"Even so, I'd still save him if his life was in danger;" Clark declared "I'm a firm believer that every life is worth saving."

"I guess so," Tayuya admitted "although I probably wouldn't consider Orochimaru worth saving, but he's not really a person in my opinion, he's a monster."


	12. Chapter 12

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 12**

Earth 1

Oliver Queen was currently in the research facility that the dimensional transporter was set up in, sitting at one of the consoles, watching the numbers scroll up the screen as the computer scanned universe after universe without finding what they were looking for.

They only had four days left, if they didn't find Clark soon they wouldn't be finding him at all.

He had taken some time away from the office once he could free himself from all the paperwork, and he had come here to spend some time watching the computer scan realities for Clark, it didn't really change how abysmally bad their chances of finding Clark were, but it helped him deal with the stress of worrying about his friend.

As he sat thinking Oliver's mobile phone rang, he picked it up off the console and answered it.

"What is it?" he asked without preamble, Oliver wasn't exactly in a patient mood right now.

"Sir, we finished testing the portable version of the artificial singularity power source," the technician who had made the call reported.

"And?"

"All systems go sir."

"Good," Oliver praised the tech on the other end of the line; it was about time something went in their favor "have it brought down to the research facility."

"Yes sir, right away," the tech replied; then he hung up the phone.

Oliver cast a glance at the portable version of the dimensional transporter where it sat on one of the lab tables, his people had finished building and testing it two days ago, but without the portable power source they'd had to test it using the mains.

At least they had all the gear ready, now all they needed was for the computer to find a match.

Oliver sat watching the numbers for a few more minutes before he decided he'd had enough.

_I should put on my costume and grab my bow, _he decided _go stop some crime,_ _maybe that'll take my mind off this for a while._

Earth 2

Tayuya was sitting at a dango stand eating lunch Anko had decided to treat her and was chewing on a dango of her own on the seat next to Tayuya.

Despite Anko's restless nature and obvious crazed streak Tayuya found that she and the older woman actually had quite a few things they could talk about, for starters Anko also knew what it felt like to be a victim of Orochimaru's machinations, and then there was the more positive subject of Clark Kent.

"I actually got to meet Clark a few times since he got here," Anko was saying to her "after all, who do you think introduced him to dangos, I haven't got to know him all that well but he seems like a good guy to me, of course you'd know him better than I would since he's now your legal guardian."

"Yeah, Clark's great," Tayuya noted "kind, compassionate, always seems to know the right thing to say, and his example inspires me to try and be a better person."

"Good to hear," Anko nodded solemnly "I wish I'd had a Clark Kent to rescue me at _that time _in my life."

They sat in silence for a while, chewing on their dangos, and then Anko caught sight of someone walking past.

"Look, there's Naruto," Anko exclaimed brightly, her face taking on a crazed grin "hi Naru Kun," she called out cheerfully, twirling an empty dango stick in her fingers as she did "want to play with me?"

Naruto's eyes went wide as he shuddered with dread at the thought, walking faster as he continued to cast wary looks in Anko's direction, Anko laughed crazily at the sight.

"I guess he's still sore about the Chunnin exam," Anko remarked, her crazed grin still in place.

Tayuya gave her a dirty look.

"You're an evil bitch, you know that?"

"And proud of it," Anko replied brightly.

"I'm so glad I have Clark in my life," Tayuya remarked with obvious distaste for Anko's antics "hopefully his influence will keep me from ending up like you."

"Aw, ending up like me's not so bad," Anko pouted.

"Well except for the fact that it makes me shudder every time I think about it," Tayuya countered flatly, shutting Anko up for a little while.

They ate in silence for a while, and had almost finished off the plate of dangos Anko had ordered when they both heard a voice speaking behind them.

"Well well," the voice was unmistakably male and laced with scorn "if it isn't two of Orochimaru's little pets."

They both turned around, leveling twin death glares at the newcomer, who turned out to be a civilian; it was Tayuya however who spoke first.

"I don't serve that snake bastard anymore," she told him flatly "and neither does Anko."

"So you think that makes everything all right huh?" their harasser asked "no way bitches, you especially red, I lost my son because of you."

"What am I supposed to say?" Tayuya asked, her expression becoming downcast "that I'm sorry? It wouldn't mean anything, sorry can't bring your son back to life; I wish it could though."

The man grabbed Tayuya by the front of her shirt as he leaned in, glaring at her, she didn't try to resist, and waved Anko off as the Jounin moved to help her.

_I deserve this, _she thought sadly.

"My son was a fine young shinobi and he was _everything _to me," the man snarled angrily "now because of you Sound monsters he's gone, he died when you and the Sand invaded this village, bad enough that they let the Sand off with a slap on the wrist, but one of your kind as well? That pisses me off."

"I didn't ask for any leniency," Tayuya replied in an uncharacteristically small voice "Clark pleaded on my behalf, I don't know what it was he saw in me that was worth saving, but he must have seen something, just wish I could figure out what it was."

"Leave her alone," the second voice was one Tayuya recognized immediately "it's sad that you lost your son, but thanks to this girl I still have mine, she saved his life, she is _not _a monster, in my eyes she's a hero, if you want to blame somebody blame Orochimaru ."

With obvious reluctance the man let go of Tayuya and walked away, fuming with anger.

"I'll make you pay," he vowed, glaring at her as he left.

"You okay?" Anko asked Tayuya, her brow furrowed with uncharacteristic concern.

"Not sure," Tayuya replied solemnly "but I will be; I deserve his scorn I guess, after the things I did when I was with the Sound I mean."

At that moment the woman's son stepped out from behind her legs where he had been hiding, greeting Tayuya with a bright smile and a wave.

"Thank you for saving me," he said, in the cutest way possible "you're my hero."

"You deserve that too," Anko told her with a smile.


	13. Chapter 13

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 13**

Earth 1

Three more days passed without the computer finding where Clark had been sent, everybody was beginning to give up hope, Lana was now hanging around the research facility almost constantly with Oliver also spending regular hour long stints there, watching the screens in the hopes of the computer locking onto Clark's vibrational signature.

Kara had been dividing her time between handling the farm chores on her own and keeping Metropolis' streets safe as best she could without giving away her and Clark's secret.

Chloe had been busy with making sure everybody who would be going to get Clark back was ready to go at a moment's notice.

Oliver and Dinah had been assisting Kara with keeping Metropolis' streets as crime free as possible.

Bart, Victor and Arthur had been kept busy trying to shut down Lex Luthor's illegal Thirty Three point One research projects.

On this last day however nobody could think of anything but whether or not they'd be able to get Clark back, Chloe had even requested a day off work because of this, and Kara had asked Ben Hubbard to handle the farm chores for the day.

The deadline crept closer and closer 10:00 AM rolled around and still no match was found; this hour found Lana sitting in front of the console watching the numbers scroll up the screen, her worry obvious as she prayed for Clark's safe return.

"Miss Lang," the voice belonged to Doctor Emil Hamilton "I'm not sure there's much anybody can really do to help here."

"I know that Emil," Lana replied softly "but I can't leave, not as long as there's the slightest hope of getting Clark back."

"I suppose not," Emil nodded sympathetically "could I bring you something?"

"I appreciate the offer," Lana told Emil gratefully "but that won't be necessary, I'll be fine."

Lana's statement that she'd be fine seemed about as convincing as somebody in tears holding up a piece of paper in front of their mouth with a smile drawn on it, nonetheless Emil respected her wishes.

As Lana sat watching the screen she began to get drowsy, eventually, having not slept properly in days she drifted off to sleep on top of the console.

She awoke after what seemed like a moment, but Lana knew it had to be longer than that, glancing at the clock; it was now 1:00 PM, just three hours left.

With a sigh Lana looked back at the screen, what she saw however was the last thing she was expecting;

MATCH FOUND.

For a moment Lana was too stunned to speak, she blinked a couple of times to make sure that what she was seeing wasn't a hallucination, finally convinced it was real she knew she had to act fast, all of them had to act fast, if they didn't then Clark's signature would match the other universe and they would miss their only chance to get him back.

"Emil," Lana called out loudly "Emil, get in here now, we found him."

What followed after that was mad haste and hurried phone calls to get all the members of the team assembled to retrieve Clark, all the while Emil, Santiago and Platt were frantically checking both of the dimensional transporter units and making sure they were ready to go.

Kara had been keeping an ear on the research facility and so showed up on her own before anybody had to call her, Chloe had been hanging by the phone and was easy to reach, and Oliver, despite the fact he was in a board meeting at the time had dropped everything and headed to the facility immediately.

And so, with just an hour to go the team of four people was all assembled, Kara being the strongest was carrying the portable dimensional transporter and all of its support equipment, Oliver was in full Green Arrow attire, having banned Platt and Santiago from being present during the transport and sworn Emil to secrecy.

Chloe was carrying her trusty Beretta for personal defense as well as her Tazer and a can of pepper spray and Lana was carrying Jonathan Kent's old twelve gauge and the Glock she had bought while still married to Lex, also for defense.

They were all carrying backpacks full of survival equipment as well (except for Kara who was carrying the dimensional transport equipment).

"Okay," Emil told them as he finished setting everything up "I have a lock on Clark's signature, if I'm right; which I usually am, you should appear somewhere within ten miles of his location. I'll keep the transporter on this end active, the one you're carrying is programmed to automatically lock onto the vibrational signature of our reality, and the signal given off by the transporter on this end should draw you back to this location."

"We got it Doc," Oliver noted seriously "how high are the chances that it'll work out like you said?"

"Ninety percent," Emil replied "only an unmitigated disaster could make anything go wrong with that, is everybody ready?"

"I'm ready," Oliver confirmed.

"Good to go," Kara stated."

"Ready," Lana replied simply.

"Beam me up Scotty," Chloe quipped, earning a chuckle from the others.

Emil nodded and activated the device.


	14. Chapter 14

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 14**

Earth 2

The Land of Fire

A few miles from Konoha

In the open farmland interspersed with forest surrounding Konoha, between where the village was situated and the massive redwood forests closer to the Valley of The End people were going about their business on a seemingly ordinary day.

However, all that was about to change.

On a dirt track, a sudden wind began to blow out of nowhere as sparks began to appear in midair, converging as they increased in intensity until a flash of light momentarily obscured all detail.

When the light faded four people stood where previously there had been no one.

The four looked around, taking stock of where they were, open country mostly filled with rice fields, a few farm laborers were giving them strange looks as they paused in their work to regard these four who had appeared out of thin air.

The first of these unexpected arrivals was a man dressed entirely in a green leather outfit that quite obviously was designed to protect against light melee weapons, the only parts of his body that weren't covered were his arms and the lower half of his face.

His outfit consisted of thick leather pants, a leather jerkin with a hood, dark visor style glasses and leather gloves, he had two quivers of strange looking arrows strapped to his back, an odd looking device clipped to his belt that might have unfolded into some kind of bow, and a light crossbow of some kind in a holster on his belt.

The other three were all female; one had long curly blonde hair and was tall for a girl, wearing a two toned blue outfit that left her legs, arms and abdomen bare, she was carrying some kind of strange device on her back.

The next girl was more petite, with long dark hair, wearing blue trousers and a white jacket; she had some kind of crossbow like weapon without the bow part slung over her shoulder on a makeshift leather strap.

The final member of the group had jaw length blonde hair and was more petite than the other blonde, though less so than the dark haired girl, of the four, she seemed the most fascinated by what was around her, almost as though she was curious about everything.

The man in green approached a group of the farm laborers whose attention had been drawn by their strange appearance.

"Hello," he greeted the group staring at him and his companions, his voice sounding strangely deep as though it had been electronically altered.

"Um, hello," one of the farm laborers replied "who are you people?"

"Where I come from I'm known as Green Arrow," the man in green, Green Arrow replied, then gestured to his companions in turn, speaking their names as he did "The dark haired girl is Lana Lang, the tall blonde is Kara Zor El, and the more petite blonde is Chloe Sullivan."

"Pleased to meet you-I think," the laborer replied uneasily "what brings you four here in such a strange fashion?"

"We're looking for a friend of ours," Green Arrow informed him "tall, dark haired, well built, dresses in red and blue, goes by the name of Clark Kent."

"I'm afraid I haven't seen him," the laborer told Green Arrow with a sigh "but you could try the village of Konoha, they might know something."

"It's worth a shot," Green Arrow decided "which way is it?"

"Five miles that way," the laborer told him, pointing the way as he did.

A scant five miles away in her office, Tsunade, the Hokage of the Hidden Leaf village looked up from the cup of sake she was enjoying while Shizune was elsewhere as she sensed an incredibly powerful Chakra just five miles from the village.

The first time she had sensed something like this Tsunade hadn't known what to make of it, but this time she knew.

That Chakra was unmistakably Kryptonian, and it wasn't Clark, it was someone else, interestingly enough this Chakra felt more-feminine.

_So, another Kryptonian, _Tsunade noted _and this one's a girl, if this is who I think it is Clark may have just gotten his ticket home._

Tipping the sake in her cup back into the bottle and hiding both the cup and the bottle under her desk Tsunade rose and reached for the intercom, paging the hospital front desk.

"Lady Hokage, is that you?" the receptionist on the other end asked.

"Yes, it's me," Tsunade replied "could you send Shizune to my office right away please?"

"Yes Lady Hokage, right away."

Tsunade sat back and patiently waited for Shizune to get to her office so that she could set her to work fetching the right ninja for a search and escort mission.

_No matter what we have to make sure that Clark's cousin reaches Konoha safely._


	15. Chapter 15

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 15**

"Three hundred ninety seven-three hundred ninety eight-three hundred ninety nine- four hundred, ha, take that sand bitch," Tayuya smirked as she got off of the weight training machine "four hundred repetitions per leg with a hundred pounds of weight, I'm nearly back to where I can train the way ninja normally do, _suck on that bitch_."

While weight training machines were not traditionally used for shinobi training, that didn't mean that they didn't recognize their value for physical rehabilitation purposes when someone suffered a crippling injury, this kind of exercise could quickly rebuild strength in a newly healed limb by exercising it exactly as much as it needed without overdoing it.

Unless of course Tayuya of the Northern Gate was the one deciding the weight settings, patience was definitely not one of her virtues.

Sitting down on a bench over by the wall Tayuya picked up the towel she had left there and wiped the sweat off of her face and neck, putting the towel down she grabbed her water bottle and took a large mouthful from it as she got her breath back.

As she felt her breath rapidly slowing to its normal rate, Tayuya caught herself reflecting on her encounter with that angry villager a few days ago, the death of his son was another item on a long list of regrets for her.

She'd been down in the dumps for a few hours after that encounter, until Clark had given her one of his pep talks and she'd been able to focus on something else, Tayuya couldn't help reflecting on something Clark had said though.

_The fact that you feel remorse over something like this and compassion for those who were hurt by your actions in the past is what makes you better than people like Orochimaru, those feelings are one thing that will keep you from doing those things again._

That made sense Tayuya realized, those feelings and the fact that she now knew she had a choice meant that the likelihood of her committing such acts again was extremely low, she sure as hell wasn't going to serve someone like Orochimaru again.

And she wouldn't kill anyone again either if she had any choice, she had far too much blood on her hands already.

There had always been a part of Tayuya that protested against what Orochimaru had her and the rest of the Sound Five doing, but she had learned to push that part of herself aside by hardening her heart and losing herself in the thrill of battle so that she could kill who she needed to kill.

And of course she'd always end up hating herself for it later on right up to the point where it gave her nightmares.

_From now on,_ Tayuya decided _I'll do everything I can to protect life, evil better run the fuck away when I'm around._

Of course it would be useful if she could still summon her Doki to help her take down evildoers, but not having her curse seal anymore also meant no Doki, she'd have to get along without them.

As she sat thinking Tayuya suddenly sensed a massive Chakra coming from just a few miles away from the village; it had a quality to it that Tayuya had become quite familiar with having spent so much time around Clark over the past month.

_Well well, _Tayuya thought with a smile _another Kryptonian, Clark's cousin unless I'm mistaken, can't wait to meet her__._

Kurenai smiled at the irony of the situation she now found herself in, not that she had any problem with it; she just thought it was ironic.

After all, she had been the leader of the team sent to determine if Clark was a threat or not, and now she was leading the team sent to escort his cousin safely back to the village, Kurenai chuckled lightly at the situation.

"Does Lady Hokage think I have an ancestor from the House of El or something?" she joked as she walked ahead of the others "last time I checked there wasn't anyone in my family tree with El for a surname."

"I would be at a loss to determine where she got that notion if that were her opinion Kurenai Sensei," Neji remarked lightly "the only two people in the village who show evidence of possibly having Kryptonian ancestors are Haruno Sakura and of course the Hokage herself, chiefly by virtue of how physically strong they are."

"You're forgetting every member of your own clan Neji," Kurenai reminded him "X-Ray vision, isn't that a Kryptonian trait?"

"But what about the enormous strength possessed by all Kryptonians?" Neji countered "if we had Kryptonian ancestors surely we'd have that as well, of course all this assumes that our reality _has _or had a planet Krypton."

"If Clark's reality, let's call it Earth 1, had a version of the planet Krypton," Shino noted "then it's logical to assume that our reality, Earth 2 has or had its own version of the Kryptonian home world, after all, the most logical explanation for alternate realities is that they represent the infinite different possibilities for how things might have turned out but didn't do so in _this _universe."

"Why is _our _reality Earth 2 Shino?" Kurenai asked wryly.

"Because Clark's earth discovered inter dimensional travel before we did." Shino replied simply.

"Fair enough."

"So basically everything that can happen does happen," Neji surmised thoughtfully as he continued scanning for gold colored Chakra with his Byakugan "if not in this reality then in an alternate one, but still, for all we know the events that brought Krypton into existence in Clark's universe might not have happened in ours. In any case that also means that there isn't even just one version of _our_ earth but infinite different versions of it, like for example a version in which Hinata isn't terribly shy."

"Yes there probably is," Shino noted "such a world would be very alternate indeed."

"Or one in which she has already found the courage to tell Naruto how she really feels about him," Kurenai added, causing a blush to appear on the Hyuuga girl's face as she followed at the back of the group "there's probably realities in which all of us exist only in fiction, needless to say we shouldn't ever go to _those _universes."

"True," Neji agrees "such a thing would be a recipe for psychosis."

"Umm-guys," Hinata called out "I found our Kryptonian."

**Replies to reviews**

**Shugokage; Hmm, problems Clark's friends might unintentionally cause-Oliver may find that calling Tayuya cute has-unpleasant consequences and that certain people in the village may find a somewhat less than honorable use for a hand crossbow, or Chloe or Lana may find that to be true of a pistol****.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 16**

As the group from Earth 1 walked in the direction that had been pointed out for them (at least they hoped they were still walking in that direction) they couldn't help but notice the similarities between this world and the Asian nations of their own world.

Oliver, walking in the lead also couldn't help but notice that when they passed travelers, farmers and the like they got strange wary looks and whispered comments, Oliver for his part got the greatest number of strange looks in his Green Arrow garb.

He couldn't help but notice one word being whispered in a questioning tone with regards to him and his group; _shinobi._

The rest of the group noticed the looks and the whispers as well.

"What are shinobi?" Kara asked curiously from just behind Oliver, he sighed, her hearing was just as good as her cousin's of course she would have heard that.

"It's another word for ninja," Oliver explained "back in feudal Japan in our universe ninja were highly trained soldiers, mercenaries and assassins for hire, skilled in the martial arts and a whole host of weaponry, they were also reputed to have supernatural powers though that may have been exaggerated."

"Why would they think we're assassins?" Kara asked, her expression speaking of confusion.

"Beats me," Oliver responded "maybe it's because a couple of us are carrying visible weapons."

"Maybe," Kara agreed "I'm going to check that we're heading in the right direction."

Oliver opened his mouth to ask how she was planning to do that, but closed it again without speaking as Kara flew straight up into the air, he sighed in exasperation.

_So much for discretion, _he thought as he pulled his hood back and took off his visor, _what the hell, nobody back home is gonna know about this anyway_.

As he looked around, Oliver caught sight of a group of four people approaching from his left, he couldn't make them out because they were too far away but they were moving at speeds that no normal human could have matched, obviously they were superhuman in some way.

Pulling out his hand crossbow and loading it with a tazer bolt he drew the attention of those of his companions who were still on the ground to their approaching guests, as they saw this they also drew their weapons, after all they had no way of knowing if these people were friend or foe.

As they came within fifty yards Oliver had his crossbow trained on the group, Chloe and Lana had their weapons at the ready too.

"That's close enough at running speed," Oliver called out to the newcomers "approach the remaining distance at a walk please and keep your hands where I can see them."

"We mean you no harm," the leader of the group, a woman with long dark hair and eyes with blood red irises assured him, holding up her hands to show that she wasn't holding any weapons "we're shinobi of Konoha, we were sent to escort you there safely and-Where's the Kryptonian?"

"Scouting around," Oliver replied "making sure we're heading the right way, how do you know of Krypton?"

"From your friend Clark Kent, also known as Kal El," the woman replied "he's currently our guest; I assume you've come to take him back to his own world?"

"We have," Oliver replied as he unloaded his crossbow and slipped it back into its holster, gesturing for Lana and Chloe to put their own weapons away as he did, he tilted his head up, calling out to the Kryptonian girl flying overhead "Kara get down here."

A moment later the blonde haired Kryptonian girl landed lightly beside the group.

"You called Ollie?" she remarked cheerfully.

"Yes, we have guests," Oliver told her unnecessarily, he gestured at the Konoha shinobi standing in front of his own group "and you guys are?"

"I'm Yui Kurenai," the woman leading the group introduced herself, and then gestured to each of her companions in turn, introducing each of them in turn "and the Genin in my squad are Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata, and her cousin Hyuuga Neji."

"Pleased to meet you," Oliver replied, then introduced himself and each of his companions, gesturing to each as he did "I'm Oliver Queen and the charming ladies with me are Chloe Sullivan, Lana Lang, and Kara Zor El."

"So you're Clark's cousin," Kurenai noted as she looked in Kara's direction "I can definitely see the family resemblance, and the Chakra I can sense from you tells me that you'd have to be Kryptonian, your race can fly I see."

"Most of us can," Kara corrected "Kal El hasn't quite figured out how to yet."

"He hasn't?" Kurenai asked, receiving a head shake from Kara as confirmation "well we're going to have to do something about that."


	17. Chapter 17

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 17**

As Clark's friends from Earth 1 entered the village, Clark and pretty much everybody who had made friends with him during his time in Konoha were there to greet them, including Maito Gai and Rock Lee, whose eyes lit up when they caught sight of what Oliver was wearing.

"I see one of your friends appreciates the youthfulness of the color green Clark San," Maito Gai boomed joyfully "the flames of youth must burn strongly indeed in that one."

"No," Clark replied dryly "he just modeled himself after Robin Hood."

"Robin hood?" Tayuya asked curiously.

"Hero of myth and legend from my world," Clark replied "wore green, used a bow and arrow to fight his enemies, also pretty good with a sword; fought the forces of the evil usurper to the throne King John and the evil King's right hand man the Sherriff of Nottingham, robbed from the corrupt rich to give to the poor."

"This Robin Hood sounds most youthful indeed," Rock Lee piped up "yosh, I want to be just like him, where can I find a bow and arrows to practice with?"

"Your taijutsu is your bow my youthful student," Maito Gai boomed "and we already get money for dealing with the corrupt, but if you want to give to the poor then that would be most youthful of you."

Clark face palmed at Lee and Gai's responses.

"I give up," he groaned.

Walking up to Clark Oliver clapped him on the shoulder in greeting.

"Good to see you again Clark."

"You too Ollie," Clark replied with a grin "I was starting to miss you guys."

"Yeah well," Oliver smirked "I had Lana, Chloe and Kara all insisting I do whatever I could to get you back along with everybody else, couldn't really say no to that."

"I'm glad you care," Clark remarked teasingly.

"Go on ya overgrown Boy Scout, aren't you gonna introduce us to your new friends?"

"Sure, I can do that," Clark replied, then called out loudly "okay, Leaf guys, I have some introductions to make; these are some of my friends from my own earth," he gestured to each of them in turn "Oliver Queen, Chloe Sullivan, my girlfriend Lana Lang, and my cousin Kara Zor El."

Clark paused a moment, then began introducing the people he had made friends with in Konoha to his friends from home.

After the introductions were done Clark walked up to Chloe and asked her how long it would take for him to be able to return home.

"It'll take two or three days to set up the portable Dimensional Transporter unit and make sure it's working properly," Chloe replied "Doctor Emil gave me instruction on how to do it so it shouldn't be a problem, after that it's programmed to automatically lock onto the vibrational signature of our own universe and we can use it to teleport you and us back to Earth 1."

"Oh, and I also need to tell you, there's someone from this world who has decided to come back with us," Clark added, feeling that he should mention this as soon as possible.

"Who?" Chloe asked in surprise.

"That would be me," Tayuya informed the faux blonde as she stepped up beside Chloe "considering that my life on _this _earth has gone to shit."

"You're Tayuya," Oliver interjected after recalling for a moment "that's right, there were a few names that Clark listed just now but I can still remember them all, what do you meant your life here has gone to hell?"

Clark and Tayuya jointly filled the four from Earth 1 in on Tayuya's back story, the events that had brought her to the leaf village and Clark's role in them with Tayuya adding in a gratuitous amount of insults directed at Orochimaru.

"So she's now your adopted little sister," Chloe surmised "and she's looking to start a new life on our world where she'll hopefully be safe from this Orochimaru."

"Drop the 'little'," Tayuya told Chloe flatly.

"I have another cousin," Kara noted lightly.

"Well I'll say one thing," Oliver remarked "she is cute."

"Oops," that was the only comment Clark could think of as he heard Tayuya's teeth start grinding in annoyance, although perhaps 'oh crap'would have been more appropriate.

Tayuya marched right up to Oliver, seizing him by the front of his green leather jerkin with both hands and lifting him bodily off his feet.

"Let's get one thing straight green genes," Tayuya ground out in a forceful tone that clearly indicated that she was pissed off "_I-aint-cute._"

"Sure, whatever," Oliver replied, visibly shaken "not cute, not even a little bit."

Tayuya dropped Oliver flat on his backside, storming off, those present could almost see the thunder cloud over her head; they could certainly hear her teeth grinding at any rate.

"I-should have warned you about that," Clark told his friends from home nervously "she _hates _being called cute."

"I noticed," Oliver remarked as he got up and dusted himself off "your new sis has some issues Clark."

"She's getting better," Clark noted "at least she didn't beat you up Ollie."

"Glad about that," Oliver replied "from the way she picked me up like that I don't really want a punch on the jaw from that girl."

"Well she should fit in well with the Kent family," Chloe observed "what was it I used to say about you Clark? More issues than Rolling Stone magazine?"

"Something like that," Clark nodded in confirmation, smiling slightly as he did.

"In Tayuya's case I think that should be expanded though," Chloe noted thoughtfully "more issues than Rolling Stone, Empire magazine and Warrior Angel comics put together."

"That's a few issues," Oliver remarked with a smirk "but I'd have to agree."

"She'll simmer down," Kakashi noted as he walked up behind Clark and placed a hand on his shoulder "now-you, your cousin and I have some training to do, Kurenai tells me that your race has the ability to fly, and that your cousin has unlocked that ability but you haven't, so since we have two or three days before you head home I plan to spend that time doing what I can to get you flying."

"Oh-Clark," Chloe spoke solemnly, clearly regretting that she had to tell him this "there's something you need to know about what has been happening back home before you start your flying lessons, Patricia Swann has been murdered."

Clark's eyes widened in shock at this news.

"What?"


	18. Chapter 18

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 18**

"Do we know who was responsible for Patty Swann's murder?" Clark asked after the shock of Chloe's revelation had worn off.

"Who do you think Clark?" Chloe asked.

"Lex," Clark replied without hesitation, remembering a conversation he'd had with Miss Swann a couple of days after Kara had rescued him from the kryptonite cage in which Patricia had mentioned the lockets and the keys and her suspicions that Lex was after them "the assassin he sent got her locket and the key inside didn't he?"

"Yeah," Chloe replied, remembering what Clark had told her about his conversation with Patricia Swann "but it's not all bad news Clark, Lionel had the other locket and the other key," Chloe reached into her pocket and pulled out a small key which she passed to Clark "he gave it to me to give to you."

"One thing that Patricia didn't explain during our conversation at the hotel she was staying at is just what these keys are supposed to do," Clark noted as he pocketed the key Chloe had given him "I went there looking for some guidance, then caught someone prowling outside, he got away but dropped his mobile phone."

"I remember Clark," Chloe reminded him "you checked the messages hoping to get some clue as to who he was and found a voicemail message from Lex telling him to 'keep tabs on Swann'."

"And after that she mentioned the lockets and the keys and that I had to make sure that Lex didn't get his hands on both we both decided that it would be best if Patricia were to go into hiding," Clark recalled "but Lex's assassin still managed to find her."

"At least you have one of the keys," Kakashi noted "hopefully Lex thinks that Lionel still has it."

"But that still doesn't answer the question," Tayuya noted as she rejoined the conversation, her anger toward Oliver for calling her cute forgotten as she heard mention of a conspiracy "just what do these keys do?"

"According to Lionel they unlock the secret of a device with the ability to control Clark," Chloe supplied.

"_Son of a bitch_," Tayuya cursed "I knew that bastard was looking for a way to exploit your power Clark, we need to do something about that."

"First things first though," Clark told his young charge "we need to complete our ruse in order to ensure that Orochimaru doesn't learn that you're still alive."

"What ruse?" Chloe asked in confusion.

"Kakashi," Clark told the Jounin "we'll have to delay the start of the flying lessons a bit, I need to fill the guys in on our witness protection plans for keeping Tayuya safe; how 'bout tomorrow morning we start?"

"At sunrise," Kakashi told him "on top of Hokage Mountain."

"Knowing you it'll be halfway through the morning before you show up."

"Just be there."

"I could say the same thing to you," Clark replied with a grin.

"So let me get this straight," Tayuya noted as she, Clark, Tsunade and Clark's friends from Earth 1 sat in Tsunade's office "Clark's arrival on your earth was foretold in various prophecies, including one that referred to him as 'The Traveler' a group called Veritas was founded by those who knew of this prophecy charged with the responsibility of keeping Clark safe, Lionel is a member of this Veritas right?"

"Yes, he is," Clark confirmed "Patricia told me that much, originally he wanted my power for himself, but for some reason he seems to be helping us now."

"Don't forget that just over a month ago he had you locked in a kryptonite cage," Chloe reminded Clark "I wouldn't trust him completely if I were you."

"Maybe not, but right now I trust Lex a lot less," Clark countered.

"So was Patricia-?"

"A member of Veritas?" Clark asked receiving a nod from Tayuya "she wasn't sis, but her father Doctor Virgil Swann was, as were the Teagues, and Oliver's parents the Queens, to my knowledge Lionel is now the sole surviving member of Veritas, chiefly by his own doing."

"That bastard killed Ollie's parents," Tayuya realized "and the Teagues, and Doctor Swann."

"Yeah," Oliver noted "I would've liked to know that as soon as you found out he was responsible for my parents' deaths Clark," Oliver told the Kryptonian "I was only a little kid when that happened you know."

"I can relate Oliver," Tayuya told him sympathetically "I lost my only remaining parent when I was five, and she was murdered too."

"Five," Oliver noted with a chuckle at the irony of the situation "quite a coincidence, I was five years old when both my folks died."

"Ironic."

"Anyhow, back to the subject at hand," Lana interjected before the conversation turned to her own deceased parents "what is this ruse you're planning to keep Orochimaru fooled?"

"Well," Tsunade told the assembled group "we need to make it look like Tayuya did actually die under those logs; I assume Clark told you about that."

A series of affirmatives was heard from Chloe, Lana, Kara and Oliver.

"So what's the plan?" Kara asked.

"Basically we need a substitute body to plant at the scene, and it needs to look exactly like Tayuya to the point of being indistinguishable from her in any way," Tsunade informed the group.

"Basically," Clark told his friends "we need a clone; I'm thinking Thirty Three point One technology for that. Lana, you know more about Lex's secret projects than any of us, I remember that you recently used a clone he made of you to fake your own death."

"Model 503," Lana nodded, remembering "the product of a flawed cloning process, but it did the trick."

"I don't suppose you remember where Lex keeps the device he used to create it?" Clark asked "we'll need that to create Tayuya's clone."

"Unless Lex has moved the lab finding the device should be simple enough," Lana replied with a smile "and pulling another one over Lex will be a real pleasure, the device is in the same place the clones are kept."


	19. Chapter 19

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 19**

"Okay," Oliver decided after hearing Lana relate the information on where the cloning device was kept "the one thing we still need to know is where this lab is."

"It's located inside a facility in Montana," Lana replied "the facility is called Black Creek; given the experiments that Lex conducts there it'll be a pleasure to shut it down."

"Once we have our clone of course," Tsunade reminded her.

"Of course," Lana nodded "we'll need to make our move immediately after the guard change and incapacitate everyone quickly so that we can work uninterrupted for the next few hours. I can tell you all the best entry points and what time the guard changes once we're back in our own world, we're going to need the whole team for this though, Black Creek is heavily guarded."

"I'll be joining the team," Tayuya told them "since you're doing this to help me the least I can do is pull my weight and my genjutsu will be useful in quickly incapacitating the guards."

"Genjutsu?" Oliver asked in confusion.

"Basically the ability to alter your enemy's perceptions," Clark supplied "illusion in other words, in Tayuya's case the illusion is created by combining the sound of her flute with her Chakra, or life energy and then using her Chakra to direct the sound toward her target."

"Useful," Oliver noted "what else can you do Flute Girl?"

"Well Archer," Tayuya replied with a smirk "I'm also fairly good in Taijutsu or hand to hand combat, and I can use Chakra in all of the ways that are normal for shinobi in this universe, I can also make use of most known weapons. However, up to now I've just been carrying my flute because until recently it's been the only weapon I've ever needed."

"If I remember rightly relying solely on your flute nearly got you killed," Clark reminded her.

"It did," Tayuya admitted "so the thing about my flute being my only weapon is something I'd like to change, and I'll be getting myself another flute for combat, I'm not risking my mother's flute in a battle again."

"I'll be joining the team too," Kara volunteered "I don't think I need to tell you what my talents are."

"You two will be useful," Oliver decided "of course if you're going to join my team you two are going to need codenames."

"Seriously?" Kara asked.

"Why the fuck do we need codenames?" Tayuya asked with her usual bluntness.

"My question exactly," Tsunade asked "why use codenames? We've never needed them."

"Yes, but you guys live in a heavily guarded ninja village," Oliver countered "we superhero types don't have that luxury, we live among the general public, and with what we do we're bound to make enemies, so to protect our loved ones it's important to keep our true identities secret, hence the codenames."

"Okay, I see your point," Tsunade admitted.

"Me too," Kara agreed "but I can't think of a good codename to use."

"Why not Power Girl," Tayuya suggested.

"It'll work for now," Kara decided "I may want to change it in the future though."

"I need a codename too," Tayuya realized "and I think I should add a disguise to that as well, something similar to yours Ollie, but in black and with a hooded cloak instead of a leather jerkin."

"And what codename are you going to use?" Tsunade asked.

"Well," Tayuya decided "I'm trained as a ninja so I'm one with the night, and my power is in a song, I think I'll go with Nightsong."

"It works," Clark agreed "better than Boy Scout at any rate."

"That your codename Clark?" Tayuya asked with obvious amusement.

"Yeah," Clark confirmed reluctantly.

"It sucks," Tayuya stated bluntly.

"I know," Clark agreed, making a face as he did "and I have Oliver to thank for it."

"You're horrible to your friend Oliver," Tayuya told the green clad archer.

"Thank you, I try," Oliver replied with a smirk.

"Okay," Tsunade decided "now that we've done all the planning we can on this end the only thing left is to arrange accommodation for Clark's friends for the next two or three days, arranging hotels rooms for Oliver Chloe and Kara shouldn't be a problem, and for Lana, well since she and Clark are lovers I don't see any problem with her staying in Clark's apartment."

_Oh fuck, _Tayuya thought as she heard that _literally oh fuck, naturally they're going to share the same bed and my room is right across the hall from Clark's, I'd better get myself some earplugs._

At this point Chloe stepped in.

"Um, there could be a problem with them sharing a bed considering how strong Clark is," Chloe noted, fighting a blush "Clark, if I remember rightly you kind of have an issue with-beds-and non powered people-and what might happen if you do-certain things in beds with-non powered people-CLARK."

_I hope thinking this doesn't make me mean or anything, _Tayuya thought to herself _but that's a relief._

"I-did," Clark admitted, turning bright red as he did "but the training I've received while I've been in Konoha has taught me to-manage my powers better, I'm in full control of my strength now I'm in control of-everything."

_Oh well, _Tayuya thought _I guess it's a good thing that they can-express their love now, better buy those earplugs though._

"Well," Tsunade told them "I guess that settles that, Clark why don't you show your friends around the village, I'll send someone to let you know once the hotel rooms are arranged."

Tsunade watched as Clark and his friends left, her attention was largely on Chloe.

Once they were out of the room she turned to Shizune who was standing beside the desk.

"You sensed it too I see," Tsunade observed, noting Shizune's gaze.

"Yes," Shizune confirmed "I did."

"Chloe has healing Chakra," Tsunade surmised "but she has no control over it, no doubt whenever she uses that ability she puts her own life at risk, we're going to have to help her with that."


	20. Chapter 20

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 20**

The next day.

It was close to mid morning and Kakashi had only now turned up at the summit of Hokage Mountain, and of course he had given some lame excuse that nobody believed.

Clark stood at the edge of the cliff top at the top of Hokage Mountain over a good way from where the carved heads of the past Hokage of Konoha were located, that way if he fell there would be nothing but forestry below him, as opposed to part of the village.

As Clark, Kakashi, and Tayuya who had insisted that she wanted to watch (in spite of Clark's protests) were watching Kara was demonstrating flying; presently she finished the demonstration as she came in for a graceful landing.

"See Clark," Kara told her cousin with a smile "it's easy-up up and away."

Tayuya frowned at the corny phrase Kara had just used.

"Please tell me you did not just say that."

"Say what?" Kara asked confused.

"Up up and away," Tayuya reminded the kryptonian girl "please tell me you didn't say it, it sounds lame."

"Yeah well, my point stands," Kara insisted "flying should come naturally to a kryptonian."

"Not to me apparently," Clark remarked quietly.

"That's what we're here for," Kakashi noted "to try and fix that."

"Go on Clark, give it a try," Kara encouraged him.

Clark stepped up to the edge, taking some deep breaths to try and overcome his uneasiness, relaxing for a moment he made the mistake of letting his gaze drift to the forest below and immediately regretted it.

_Don't look down,_ Clark reminded himself mentally _don't look down, don't look down, DON"T LOOK DOWN._

"Well Clark?" Tayuya asked him "aren't you going to make your first attempt at flying?"

"Give-give me a minute," Clark replied uneasily as he tried to calm his racing heart.

"Why are you hesitating?" Kara asked "this ability is in your blood Kal El."

"Wait, I get it," Tayuya stated in sudden realization.

"Get what?" Kakashi asked.

"Why Clark can't fly yet of course," Tayuya smirked, looking in Kakashi's direction "he's scared shitless of heights, aren't you Clark?"

"I'm-not exactly crazy about them," Clark admitted.

"That'd do it," Kara noted.

"Well," Kakashi decided "you're going to have to overcome that fear Clark."

"Maybe you can overcome it by reminding yourself that the fall won't hurt you," Tayuya suggested.

"So you're suggesting I jump off repeatedly until I'm not afraid of heights anymore?" Clark asked.

"If that's what works," Kakashi interjected "go ahead Clark."

_Okay, _Clark told himself as he stepped closer to the edge _I can do this,_ _I can-god I hate heights._

A couple more minutes passed before Tayuya ran out of patience and gave Clark a hard shove.

Not expecting the push Clark lost his balance and fell over the edge.

A few seconds later a loud crash echoed from the forest below, obviously Clark wasn't flying yet.

Tayuya noticed the looks that Kara and Kakashi were giving her.

"What?" the flute girl asked "it's not like that fall is gonna hurt him, and besides-you were both thinking the same thing."

"Clark's not going to be happy with you when he gets back up here," Kakashi remarked.

"He'll understand," Tayuya countered "in the long run it'll help him."

A sudden gust of wind was felt as Clark came out of super speed next to the three people.

"Tayuya," Clark requested mildly "could you please not do that again."

"It reminded you that the fall won't hurt you didn't it?" Tayuya asked.

"Yeah, it did," Clark admitted, pulling twigs and leaves out of his hair "but still, that wasn't very nice."

"Well?" Kakashi asked "do heights still bother you as much now?"

Clark stepped up to the edge and took a look down, he looked back up quickly.

"They still bother me but I'm not having a panic attack this time."

"That's progress then," Kakashi smiled behind his mask

Chloe stepped back from the parts of the Dimensional Transporter she had assembled so far, the power source would need at least four hours to come online properly before she could connect the beam emitter and all of the other components so that it could handle the drain without shutting down.

After that a further twelve hours would be required to charge the emitter before the startup diagnostics could be run to ensure that everything was working properly so for the next four hours Chloe had nothing to do.

It was only thanks to Doctor Emil's instructions that she was able to assemble this device at all, even being as smart as she was.

"Chloe," she recognized the voice as belonging to Shizune, the Hokage's assistant, Chloe didn't know anybody here very well, but Shizune seemed nice as far as Chloe could tell "do you have a minute?"

"For the next four hours the power supply on this thing will be going through its startup sequence," Chloe replied "until it completes that I can't put any more of the components together so I've got some time."

"Good," Shizune smiled "Lady Tsunade would like to see you when you have a spare minute."

"What about?"

"I was told to let her explain that," Shizune replied cryptically "I am allowed to tell you however that it concerns something about your Chakra that she sensed and feels we should help you with."


	21. Chapter 21

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 21**

Chloe paused for a moment outside the Hokage's office, taking a few deep breaths to calm her nervousness before entering.

Finally she pushed the door open and hesitantly took a step inside.

"You wanted to see me Lady Hokage?" Chloe greeted the older woman politely.

"Yes Chloe, please come in," Tsunade nodded "I'm glad you managed to find time in amongst the construction of the Dimensional Transport device, I assume that Shizune mentioned that I wanted to see you regarding something I sensed about your Chakra?"

"She mentioned that," Chloe confirmed "Chakra, that's life energy isn't it?"

"It's a combination of physical and spiritual energy," Tsunade told her "the energy of the body and the energy of the spirit combine to become life, so yes I suppose you could call it that."

"So-what you sensed about my Chakra," Chloe decided to hazard a guess "it has to do with my kryptonite infection doesn't it; my healing ability?"

"What I sensed is healing Chakra," Tsunade confirmed "it has definitely been altered by the kryptonite in your body, but the mineral in your blood didn't create this ability Chloe, it just woke it up."

"Which is why I haven't suffered from any of the mental instability that those of the Krypto powered persuasion all too often suffer from," Chloe realized.

"And," Tsunade added "the reason you can access this ability without any training-."

"-Is because the kryptonite is turbo charging it," Chloe noted as all the pieces began to fall into place "problem is I can't use this power without killing myself, the first time I used it I brought my cousin back from near death after she had been stabbed, next thing I knew I woke up in a morgue freezer, that was not fun I can tell you, thank god for friends from Krypton."

"Clark definitely has a knack for being there when people need him," Tsunade observed "the reason why this ability has such an ill effect on you Chloe is that you don't know how to control it properly, the death like state that you went into is a form of hibernation that natural healers such as yourself will sometimes go into as a result of Chakra exhaustion, in any case Shizune and I can teach you how to control this power if you want, however it's going to take longer than the time we have until you head home."  
"I'd like to gain control over this ability," Chloe told Tsunade honestly "so what do you suggest?"

"Well one option is for you to stay a little longer than your friends," Tsunade suggested "there is a Transporter on this end to send you home, or there will be once you're done constructing it, but with everything going on in your home reality I'm guessing that option won't really work for you."

"Hmm, probably not," Chloe admitted "my friends depend on me to be the eyes and ears of the team, so what are our other options?"

"Well, since there is going to be a transporter on both ends I suppose it would be possible for someone to spend a couple of days on Earth 1 every week or so helping you gain control of your abilities," Tsunade suggested "Shizune and I have become quite curious about the world you come from by the way; I can't do it because of my responsibilities here but Shizune should be able to."

"You'd be willing to do that?"Chloe asked.

"In return for one favor," Tsunade clarified.

"What favor is that?" Chloe asked.

"If this village ever finds itself with its back figuratively to the wall, facing imminent destruction with no other way out we can call upon your team of heroes to come to our aid."

"I can't see a problem with that personally," Chloe replied "given what Clark's like I can't imagine that he'd have an issue with it either, of course we'd need to check with all the members of the team to see if they will agree to this, maybe I should see if I can convince the whole team to come when we return here with Tayuya's clone."

"That might help," Tsunade suggested "then we can discuss this face to face."

Clark and Tayuya were walking back to the apartment at the end of the day's flight training; they were both strangely content with how the day had gone considering that Clark wasn't flying yet.

This was partially due to the fact that toward the end of the day of Clark jumping off the cliff he had finally conquered his fear of heights, and had gotten to the point where he could actually slow the fall as he descended, that was one issue he had put behind him.

And speaking of issues;

"Tayuya," Clark asked his adopted sister "I've been meaning to ask; why do you hate being called cute so much, are you worried that you won't be taken seriously?"

"It's not that," Tayuya replied dismissively "back when I was with the Sound I was one of only a few girls in the Sound Village, and there were a lot of guys mostly teenage and oversexed, and of the few girls there I got the most ogling by far, I had horny guys all over me_ and I wasn't actually interested in a fucking one of them__._"

"That sounds-uncomfortable," Clark noted.

"You don't know the half of it," Tayuya snorted "suckers for a redhead the lot of em, there were even a couple of guys like that in the Sound Four, or Sound Five depending if you count Kimimaro or not. Anyway, the two, well really three since one was two brothers in one body, Sakon and Ukon and a six armed spider freak named Kidoumaru, were always showing what utter perverts they were."

"You had to work with those lechers?" Clark arched an eyebrow at this.

"Yeah and it sucked," Tayuya remarked "Sakon at least restricted it to lewd remarks and Ukon was asleep most of the time, but Kidoumaru-."

"What'd he do?" Clark asked gently, trying not to cause Tayuya any additional pain.

"Well first he'd call me cute," Tayuya replied "back then I was 'meh' about it, didn't know the bastard was planning to try and feel me up after, not the first time anyway."

"I take it you beat the crap out of him putting his mitts all over you," Clark noted in assumption.

"Fuck yeah," Tayuya replied "the sick bastard had it coming, didn't stop him from trying again though."

"Didn't learn his lesson did he," Clark commented dryly.

"Nope," Tayuya confirmed "and each time he'd lead by calling me cute, one time I was just minding my own business when I heard _that voice _behind me say 'hey there cutie' _next thing I know I feel his hand on my ass._"

"You break his arm?" Clark asked, feeling he already knew the answer to that question.

"In three places," Tayuya nodded grinning wickedly "damn that was fun, he still came back for more though, it got to the point where I didn't wait for him to try and feel me up anymore, I just beat the shit out of him as soon as he called me cute, and anyone else who called me cute too."

"Hmm, I see," Clark nodded thoughtfully "but you know, not everybody is like Kidoumaru."

"I know," Tayuya replied with a heavy sigh "it's just old habits die hard, and there's the fact that people callin' me cute brings back bad memories, that's why I hate it."


	22. Chapter 22

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 22**

It was nighttime in the apartment that Clark was staying in while he was in Konoha and sharing with his girlfriend and his newly adopted sister, the hour was well past midnight and everybody who lived there was asleep.

But there was someone else here, someone who wasn't asleep and didn't live here, someone who had a score to settle with a certain redheaded girl who did;

This man had lost his son in the Sand/Sound invasion of Konoha and now he sought to exact revenge.

He moved soundlessly through the living room of the apartment, having been a shinobi in his younger years, long since retired he now lived as a civilian.

As he moved through the room he caught sight of the crossbow like weapon that the petite girl with dark hair had been carrying when she entered the village leaning against the wall, picking it up he began to examine it.

The stock and trigger mechanism looked like a crossbow, but much of the weapon was made of metal and in the place of the bow part was a metal tube(apparently that was where the projectile came out), underneath the weapon was a handle attached to a sliding mechanism of some kind, apparently to load the weapon with.

Experimentally he slid it back and found as he did that it was empty of whatever kind of ammunition it was supposed to use as evidenced by the fact that he couldn't feel anything click into place.

Looking around he caught sight of a cardboard box with strange writing on it, picking it up he opened it and saw several round plastic cylinders with metal caps on one end inside, they looked like they were made to fit inside the weapon he was holding, and he guessed that the metal part was meant to face the stock of the weapon.

Experimentally he pushed one of these cylinders against the metal plate covering what looked like a loading port of some kind, and found that it slid straight in with a click, he tried another and it slid in as well, continuing like this he found that he could fit a total of five of these cylinders in the weapon.

He slid the action forward and moved down the hallway toward the bedrooms.

Tayuya stirred in her sleep; then snapped awake, pulling out her earplugs as she did, sensing that something wasn't right.

As she sat up she found herself looking down the barrel of Lana's shotgun, Tayuya froze, she knew exactly what that weapon could do; Lana had given her a demonstration of its capabilities in the woods surrounding the village the day she had arrived, naturally Lana wasn't the one holding it this time.

Tayuya's eyes widened as she realized that she recognized the person pointing a shotgun at her head.

"You're-you're that guy from the dango stand," Tayuya exclaimed in shock "the one who lost his son, I take it you're here for revenge."

"That's right," the man replied scornfully "my name is Gekkou Ryu, my son Gekkou Hayate was the first to die in the Sand/Sound invasion of this village that you; your fellow Sound Nin and your master Orochimaru engineered."

"I-remember hearing a report that one of our allies from Suna had killed a Leaf Nin who caught him speaking with Kabuto near Kikyou Castle," Tayuya recalled "it was Hayate he killed wasn't it?"

"Yes," Ryu confirmed "they found his body there the next day cut into two parts."

"I'm sorry for your loss," Tayuya replied honestly "but I wasn't personally involved in that killing," turning her head as she heard a noise in the doorway to her bedroom she caught sight of Clark and Lana standing there, both looking like they wanted to leap to Tayuya's defense.

Lana held her pistol in both hands and she looked very eager to use it on the man threatening Tayuya with a shotgun, Clark's eyes were glowing red and he looked like he wanted to do something very unpleasant to Ryu.

"Don't interfere," Tayuya told them both flatly.

"But- he's gonna kill you," Clark protested.

"Possibly," Tayuya agreed "but who's to say I don't deserve it?"

Ashe heard her say this Ryu seemed to question what he was doing, but after a moment his gaze hardened again.

"You expect me to believe that a monster like you is capable of feeling remorse? As far as I'm concerned you only saved that boy to curry favor with the people of this village."

"She nearly got killed saving that boy Ryu," Clark told him flatly "those aren't the actions of somebody just trying to curry favor, they're the actions of a hero."

"What he said," Lana added, moving her head in Clark's direction.

"And aside from her back she barely got a burn," Ryu retorted.

"No," Clark admitted "she got a severe concussion instead, I never could understand why that would be so. Care to explain that one Tayuya?"

"Some other time Clark," Tayuya replied "when I don't have a shotgun pointed at my head."

"You're not going to have a chance later," Ryu told her flatly, however there now seemed to be some doubt in his voice "you may not have been personally involved in my son's death but you're still a remorseless killer."

"Whether you believe it or not Ryu I feel remorse every day for the things I did under Orochimaru," Tayuya replied, looking Ryu straight in the eye as she did "The truth is I had to push my own feelings aside to do those things, and I always ended up hating myself later, I can't tell you how many nightmares I've had because of it-I lost count."

"So why do it?" Ryu asked; seeming to be convinced of that much at least by Tayuya's unwavering gaze "why give your loyalty to a monster like Orochimaru if you hated what he had you do?"

"Because I was a fool," Tayuya replied honestly, the barrel of the shotgun seeming very large in front of her face, she swallowed nervously, trying to calm her racing heart "I thought that I didn't have a choice, that gaining Orochimaru's approval by doing those things was the only way I'd ever mean anything to anyone. He convinced me that he wanted to create a better world and I thought he at least cared about me, but he's not capable of caring about anyone, I know that now."

Tayuya paused for a moment, glancing briefly toward Lana and Clark and then continued.

"And I now know that I have a choice, Clark showed me that, showed me that I can seize the future and live for compassion and love instead of hate and become a force for good instead of evil. And now my future is in your hands Ryu and you are faced with the same choice, do I get to live and become the hero I can be, or do you kill me right now out of hate? Your choice, live your life or waste it on hate and revenge."

For a long moment Ryu didn't speak, and the gun didn't shift from aiming at Tayuya's head, she swallowed nervously.

Finally Ryu spoke.

"How do I know you won't turn me in as soon as I leave?" he demanded.

"Put the weapon down and leave peacefully," Tayuya offered "and I promise that nobody will ever know of this."

"I can do that," Ryu replied with a nod, placing the shotgun on the floor at the foot of Tayuya's bed he turned to leave, as he reached the door he paused and turned back toward the teen "you're not the monster I thought you were, but promise me one more thing."

"Name it," Tayuya told him without hesitation.

"Promise me that if you ever meet someone else who is as bad off as you were before you met Clark," Ryu paused and took a breath "promise me that if you do meet someone like that you'll do everything you can to save them and show _them _that they have a choice."

"I promise I will," Tayuya replied without hesitation.

Ryu turned and left.

"I'm proud of you sis," Clark told Tayuya "but damn it I wish you wouldn't scare me like that."

Tayuya laughed lightly, that was Clark, overprotective as always.

"Face facts Clark," Tayuya replied with a very large smirk "Kara and I are always gonna be giving you grey hairs."

**Replies to reviews**

**Shugokage; as far as the press go Tayuya would probably learn to grin and bear it after a while, after all, she's mellowed a little already as you saw when she simply picked Oliver up by his jerkin instead of actually beating him up for calling her cute, it's the bad guys that would have to really worry, like Toyman as you said, but guys like Lex Luthor would have more reason to worry still seeing as she doesn't like Lex to begin with.**

**Authors note**

**At some point in the future I'm hoping to do a Tayuya/Nightsong versus the Pied Piper story, so if anybody can tell me where to find information on the DC Comics version of the Pied Piper that would be useful thanks.**


	23. Chapter 23

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 23**

Haruno Sakura was waiting patiently for Lady Tsunade to arrive; she had made sure to turn up early for the medical Shinobi training that Tsunade and Shizune were giving her, as she waited the door to the learning area opened.

_Lady Tsunade? _Sakura wondered _she's at least ten minutes early._

However it wasn't Tsunade who walked in the door, Sakura realized with surprise that it was one of Clark's friends from Earth 1, Chloe Sullivan.

"What are you doing here?" Sakura asked in surprise.

"Lady Tsunade sensed a healing power I have and decided to help me learn to control it," Chloe replied.

"A natural healing power?"

"Well except for the fact that the kryptonite in my blood is increasing it that is," Chloe replied "but because I can't control it-."

"-You end up hurting yourself whenever you use it," Sakura deduced.

"I do," Chloe confirmed.

"And that's what we're here to fix," Tsunade told her as she entered the room "Sakura here has perfect control but has had to learn how to summon the actual healing Chakra, you on the other hand can summon healing Chakra naturally but you need to learn control."

"So-how do we go about doing that?" Chloe asked.

"Well this will require practice on small animals to begin with," Tsunade replied "Sakura started learning to access the power by summoning the healing Chakra as I instructed her to do so to revive small fish from near asphyxiation, then she healed somebody's pet rabbit when it's leg got broken, now she has graduated to practicing on larger fish."

"Reviving fish," Chloe noted "well if helping a fish pull a Lazarus is what works then I guess I'll give it a try."

"Lazarus?" Sakura asked "who's Lazarus?"

"Mythical figure from my world," Chloe replied "died and was subsequently brought back to life through divine intervention."

"Get the nets you two," Tsunade told them with a smile.

It had taken them a little while, but they finally managed to get a couple of suitable fish to practice on, and both were close enough to suffocating for them to practice.

"Sakura," Tsunade instructed "you go first."

Sakura placed both hands over the nearly dead fish and concentrated, it was about a meter and a half long, but as she began to focus healing Chakra into it, it revived under the green glow and slipped back into the pool they were standing beside.

"Well done Sakura," Tsunade praised her "now you Chloe."

Chloe did the same as Sakura had done, but she barely had to concentrate before there was a flash of white light causing her much smaller fish to instantly revive and begin to flap it's way to the end of the table, however she was doubled over and clearly struggling to stay on her feet from the drain that healing the fish had placed upon her.

"As I said Chloe," Tsunade remarked "your problem isn't summoning the power but controlling it, catch your breath for a few minutes, your fish should be sufficiently close to suffocated for you to try again by then."

Clark, Kakashi, Kara and Tayuya once again stood on the edge of a cliff overlooking forest beside the village as flying practice continued; they decided that it was now time for Clark to attempt actual flying as opposed to just slowing his fall.

Sitting a ways back from the cliff Tayuya was getting in some flute practice.

"Okay Clark," Kara told him "flying is pretty much mind over matter, first you need to clear your mind and be in the moment, then will yourself to fly."

_Okay, _Clark thought to himself _clear my mind and just be in the moment._

However, as Clark attempted to do that the noises he heard all around him got louder and louder until he was forced to his knees with his hands over his ears.

Letting his thoughts in again allowed the noises to fade, and he stood up again, trying to ignore the looks of concern he was getting.

"I'm all right," Clark assured those with him "it's just the more I try to clear my mind the more noise I hear, I can't concentrate properly."

"Hmm," Kara thought for a moment.

"Tayuya," Kakashi suggested "play your flute again will you?"

"What should I play?" Tayuya asked.

"It doesn't matter," Kakashi replied "it just has to be something slow and peaceful."

Tayuya nodded and began to play as she seemed to catch on.

Kara smiled as she caught on as well.

"Good thinking Kakashi," Kara noted with a smile "Clark, instead of trying to completely clear your mind, why don't you just focus on one thing, like the sound of Tayuya's flute, make that one sound your whole world."

"That might work," Clark smiled.

_Okay, _Clark thought to himself _just focus on the flute, tune out everything else and concentrate on the flute._

As Clark did so the other sounds slipped away until Tayuya's flute was all he could hear, and as this happened his mind became more peaceful and more focused.

Then he willed himself to fly.

As the others watched Clark shot into the air, soaring over the forest, but he only managed to fly a couple of miles before the power gave out on him and he fell in a crash of breaking branches.

As Clark got back up he heard Kara land lightly beside him.

"Are you okay?" Kara asked.

"I'm all right," Clark assured her "just frustrated, I had it but I lost it."

"It's a start Clark," Kara assured him "you just need to learn how to hold onto that feeling."


	24. Chapter 24

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 24**

As Chloe walked back into the secure bunker where she had finished constructing the Dimensional Transporter she walked over and checked how it's startup diagnostics were going.

So far so good according to what the screen was displaying there was an estimated twelve hours remaining until it could send them all home.

_Twelve hours until we can get Clark home and give Tayuya a new life,_ Chloe noted _which means we should be heading home sometime tomorrow._

She had made some progress learning to control her healing power today, although she still had a long way to go and still felt very drained after using her healing powers she no longer felt like she was on the point of passing out or possibly dying when she did so.

According to Tsunade, once she had full command of her abilities she would be able to see into the human body by sensing Chakra, heal even the most dire injuries whether they be hers or someone else's without any risk to her own life and even create scalpels out of pure Chakra, in Chloe's case her training was focused purely on developing her healing abilities.

Chloe was still a long way off of that.

But still, her ability of healing was far more use to her and her friends now that she could use it without risking death.

Clark was frustrated, his flight training seemed to have hit a wall, he'd gotten the flight going but he kept crashing, he'd achieve flight but only be able to hold onto it for a few precious moments, and he hadn't been able to stretch the distance of his flight beyond a few miles.

And now dark was creeping in and the day's training had ended on that note.

"So what's holding you back Clark?" Kara asked.

"I'm messing up," Clark replied quietly "same as always."

"Clark," Tayuya told him, sensing that her newly gained brother who had helped her so much now needed help himself "you don't always screw up maybe sometimes but then so do we all, you said it yourself, nobody's perfect."

"That's right Clark," Kara assured him "think about how many lives you've saved, yes you've messed up a few times as well, but you've done far more good than harm."

"I couldn't save my father though," Clark replied quietly.

"What," Kara asked "Jor El? But-."

"Not Jor El," Clark clarified "my adoptive father, Jonathan Kent."

"You blame yourself," Kakashi observed "don't you?"

"He died protecting my secret," Clark countered "the stress of the situation caused his heart to give out, of course I'd blame myself for that, why wouldn't I?"

"I know how that feels," Tayuya told Clark sadly "my mom died protecting me from those murdering bastard bandits."

"Nobody made your father protect you Clark," Kakashi told him "he did so of his own free will, as did your mother Tayuya."

"I'm his son," Clark replied, not quite ready to let go of his guilt "what else was he gonna do?"

"The same thing as my Mom," Tayuya said quietly "she fought dozens of those bandits and all I could do was hide in a closet."

"Nobody made your father take you in Clark," Kakashi told Clark gently "nobody made him love you, neither did anybody make Tayuya's mother love her, we all make our choices for good or ill and we have to live with the consequences, for good or ill, allow your father the dignity of his choice Clark, and Tayuya, allow your mother the dignity of hers."

"I guess so," Clark admitted "I owe him that much at least, but I should have been there."

"You couldn't have known Clark," Kakashi countered "it's not your fault, let it go."

"Still, it hurts," Clark told the others solemnly.

"Of course it does," Kakashi replied "it always hurts when you can't save someone, especially someone precious to you."

"Yeah," Clark agreed "it does, and that's something you're going to have to face eventually Tayuya, now that you're following the hero's path, for all the lives you save there will be some people you can't save no matter how hard you try."

"How do you live with that?" Tayuya asked, imagining herself in that situation.

"I'm still trying to figure that out," Clark responded with a sigh "mainly I try to do better next time, and I guess I should try not to blame myself so much, or punish others for their past mistakes as much as I've been guilty of doing."

"The way I'm holding a grudge against Temari," Tayuya realized in surprise "maybe I should let that go; I mean she was just doing her job after all."

"That's the spirit Tayuya," Clark told her with a smile as that bit of progress served to cheer him up "we both need to stop holding onto the past so tight I guess, and you know something else?"

"What?" Tayuya asked with a hint of a smile, she had a feeling that this was going to be very amusing.

"In the world I'm from we have a saying," Clark told her with a conspiratorial smirk "the original version is 'always forgive your enemies' but a more modern form of it is 'always forgive your enemies because nothing annoys them more.'"

Tayuya grinned at the mention of that.

"I like that second version best."


	25. Chapter 25

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 25**

The Dimensional Transporter completed its startup diagnostics around 8:00 AM the following day, about four hours after that everybody was packed and ready to go.

Now they all stood inside the secure bunker waiting as Chloe made the final adjustments to the device, and waited for it to lock onto their home reality.

Finally, after a wait of nearly a half hour a tone sounded indicating that the device had locked onto the vibrational frequency it was programmed for.

Chloe tapped in a quick series of instructions at the control console; then called out to the others.

"Okay everybody, gather in front of the device," she called out "I've set it for automatic activation on a thirty second time delay."

Everybody hastily gathered in front of the device, Tayuya, who was receiving a cloth wrapped parcel from Tsunade at the time took a little longer, but they were all in place with fifteen seconds to spare.

"We'll be back with Tayuya's clone as soon as possible," Chloe assured Tsunade just a few seconds before the device activated.

"I look forward to meeting the rest of your team," Tsunade replied with a nod.

A moment later there was a bright flash of light and the walls of the bunker seemed to disappear from around them.

Earth 1

As the light faded Tayuya became aware that she was standing in a massive research complex, surrounded by technology she had never seen before, a man in a lab coat entered the room, catching sight of the group Tayuya was tagging along with.

"I see you got Mr. Kent back," the man observed; then his gaze settled on Tayuya "and I see you have someone extra in the group, who might you be young lady?"

"My name is Tayuya;" she replied "I came back to this world to start a new life here because I don't have any reason to want to stay in the world I came from, the reason why is a very long story."

"And very complicated," Clark added "but what it boils down to is that Tayuya had no family, I got to know her and became attached and I pretty much adopted her as a younger sister."

"So you're part of Clark's family now?" the man asked, Tayuya nodded "it's a pleasure to meet you, my name is Doctor Emil Hamilton, but you can just call me Emil if you want, are you planning to take on the Kent surname?"

"I might," Tayuya replied thoughtfully.

"Well in any case you should be in good company with the Kents from what I'm told."

Emil extended his hand; Tayuya grasped it firmly, but made sure not to use her full strength.

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well Emil," she told him sincerely "so you're still getting to know my brother then?"

"I am," Emil confirmed "I'd like to be able to call him my friend someday."

"I hope that one day I'll be able to call you a friend," Tayuya nodded; then smirked "so I take it you know the shithead who blasted Clark into the world I'm from?"

"I know both of those annoyances," Emil confirmed, trying to hide his smile without success "and you just called them what I've wanted to call them for years."

"Oh, do they cause problems often?" Tayuya asked "I guess the shit hits the fan a lot around those two."

"More often than I'd like," Emil confirmed "but this time Steven Platt and Daniel Santiago greatly outdid themselves."

"Aint that the damn truth," Tayuya agreed with a smile "gotta give em props for finding a way into another universe though, I wouldn't even be breathing if Clark hadn't arrived on Earth 2 when he did."

"You know you're quite blunt in how you put things," Emil observed "even if you do curse a bit doing it I find that kind of honesty refreshing, yes I can see us becoming friends all right."

"One word of advice," Oliver interjected "if you do want to be her friend, don't ever call her cute, she hates it."

Emil thought about that for a moment.

"I'll keep that in mind," he decided.


	26. Chapter 26

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 26**

With Clark back home and a newcomer in the mix in the form of Tayuya the group all agreed that they should hold a conference at Clark's place, Kara had flown on ahead to check on the farm, and Clark had super sped there seeing as his flight was still limited to a few miles at a time.

Chloe was driving Tayuya there so that she could show her a few of the sights in Metropolis on the way; it was Tayuya's first time in an automobile, so that was new in and of itself.

As they travelled through the cityscape of gleaming towers Tayuya was looking out the window in wonderment, in that moment she seemed very much like the teenage girl she actually was.

"Wow," she exclaimed as she caught sight of the globe on top of the Daily Planet building "this-this is amazing, it's worth coming to your world just to see this."

"There's a reason they call Metropolis the city of tomorrow you know," Chloe remarked with a sly smile "of course I might be a little biased seeing as I was born in Metropolis, but I'll always consider Metropolis the greatest city on earth, Smallville is a nice place too, it has more of a homely small town feel."

"I think I'm going to like calling this world home," Tayuya decided "one day I might even travel and see all the sights it has to offer."

"Just remember that for all the amazing things about any world there is also darkness," Chloe reminded the musically minded young girl "that's why heroes are needed, to protect the innocent."

"The way I understand it heroes exist not just to protect but also to set an example," Tayuya noted thoughtfully "and I'm guessing that because we exist to protect life we can't ever take life."

"That's right," Chloe told her seriously "we can't lower ourselves to the same level as those we fight, or we're no better than them."

"I agree," Tayuya replied "I'm fine with that actually."

"You are?" Chloe asked, given the life that Tayuya had led before she had met Clark that was a little surprising.

"Sure," Tayuya confirmed "I got too damn much blood on my hands already, I don't want any more."

"I guess you wouldn't," Chloe realized "too many sleepless nights already huh?"

"Yeah."

For a long time nothing was said between them, eventually the silence got to Chloe and she decided to break it.

"So-um, what was in that parcel Tsunade gave you?"

"Oh, right," Tayuya remembered, looking down at the parcel still sitting in her lap "I haven't opened it yet have I?"

"Go on," Chloe suggested "let's see what's inside."

Tayuya began carefully unwrapping the package, untying the cord used to hold it together and folding the fabric it was wrapped in out away from the center, a smile formed on her face as she caught sight of what was inside.

"Sweet," Tayuya remarked as she regarded the contents of the parcel "this stuff should get shit done, kunai, shuriken, senbon, exploding tags, smoke capsules, hell she even included a flute for me to use in battle in place of my mother's flute."

"Just remember-," Chloe began.

"-Superheroes don't kill people, I know," Tayuya interrupted "but you _can _use a kunai to bring someone down without killing them you know, put one in their kneecap and they won't die but they also won't be much of a threat for a while."

"I know," Chloe replied "Black Canary does something similar with her throwing knives."

"I take it Black Canary this woman's codename," Tayuya deduced thoughtfully "so how does that correlate to her use of knives?"

"It doesn't," Chloe replied "it applied originally to the fact that she wears black leather, black fishnet stockings and a canary yellow wig as part of her disguise when in costume, a canary is also a kind of songbird in this world so since Canary's most powerful weapon is her voice it also fits in that way."

"Her voice is a weapon?" Tayuya noted in surprise "kinda like my flute."

"Yeah, Chloe agreed with a smirk "except not nearly as subtle, if she uses her voice right Canary can shatter windows at thirty paces, and eardrums too, her subsonic blast was enough to bring even Clark to his knees once."

"Whoa," Tayuya exclaimed "let's make sure Orochimaru doesn't find out about her okay? He has this fetish for soldiers with sound based attacks."

"Somehow I doubt she'd ever join someone like him," Chloe assured Tayuya "getting duped by Lex recently has her steering clear of any bounty hunter or mercenary work, she's strictly pro bono superhero these days."

"Hmm," Tayuya mused "looks like I might find some common ground with Canary."


	27. Chapter 27

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 27**

Several hours later

It had taken quite a while, but the team was finally assembled at the Kent farm, Bart, Victor and Arthur had been the hardest to track down, Oliver had needed to send his private jet to pick them up from near Colorado Springs where they had just finished shutting down another of Lex Luthor's secret 33.1 labs.

Now the entire team was assembled in the living room, and they had just been filled in on the situation and the plan.

"Okay," Clark concluded as he finished relating the story "so now we know what needs to be done, any questions?"

"I've got one," Dinah stated "I want to know if I'm high or just dreaming, I mean I get that we're doing this to give Tayuya a second chance and I'm all for that, she deserves her second chance, but are we seriously letting her tag along on this?"

"Why the hell shouldn't I come?" Tayuya demanded hotly "I can handle myself."

"Are you sure about that?" Dinah asked skeptically "I seem to remember hearing that you got a forest dropped on you not too long ago plus you're only fourteen years old."

"Fourteen's old enough to be a soldier where I'm from," Tayuya countered.

"Well here you'd still be considered a minor," Dinah shot back "and from what I understand your most powerful weapon is some pretty music to lull our enemies to sleep, you didn't even carry any weapons _besides_ your flute until just recently."

"Just because I didn't carry them doesn't mean I can't use them," Tayuya insisted "and I carry em now, I can handle myself _without _weapons if I need, and if we're going to go with the argument of my most powerful weapon being pretty music then I could argue that your most powerful weapon is an annoying screech Black Canary."

Dinah's jaw dropped as she stared in astonishment at Tayuya who just smirked back at her; finally Dinah broke into a grin.

"I like you kid," she decided "tell you what, after this conference is over you and I should spar for a little bit-hand to hand only, and if you win then you get to come along."

"I'm gonna kick your ass," Tayuya declared confidently.

"Back to the matter at hand please," Oliver requested impatiently.

"The William Tell wannabe is right Dinah," Arthur told her with a smirk "I didn't think den mothers like you were supposed to get into arguments in front of the boys."

"Who said I was your den mother?" Dinah asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Mr. Hood here might have mentioned hearing it from Clark," Arthur noted casually "something along the lines of 'these guys could use a den mother.'"

"That was a joke sushi boy," Oliver shot back with a superior looking grin "oh and I'm sure that Tayuya can handle herself, after all I remember her lifting me bodily off of the ground not too long ago."

"You can come," Dinah told Tayuya upon hearing that "no sparring session needed."

"Thanks Tweety," Tayuya shot back smoothly, earning a dirty look from Dinah.

"Planning how we are going to do this please?" Oliver repeated, the two immediately paid attention "thank you, now Lana, can you tell us where the best entrance point is?"

"Black Creek is located inside an old rundown factory," Lana supplied "on the outside you'd never know what it really is, inside its heavily fortified, steel blast doors, electronic security, and armed guards, there are a number of entrance points available, but I doubt any one is safer than the others."

"The blast doors should be no problem for myself or either of the kryptonians in our group," Oliver decided "what about the surveillance?"

"I can hack their system and reprogram the cameras to display the same three minutes of footage over and over as well as disabling any hidden alarms," Chloe volunteered "normally it'd be easier to just cut the power, but in this case that would work against us in more ways than one."

"Okay, that leaves the guards," Oliver decided "Tayuya, how close do you need to be for your genjutsu to say, put somebody to sleep for the next few hours?"

"As long as they can hear the sound it'll affect them," Tayuya replied simply.

"That'll work in our favor," Chloe remarked "if we can get Tayuya to the main office then theoretically we should be able to use the PA system to transmit the sound through the entire facility, taking down all of the guards at once."

"Looks like we need her," Dinah reluctantly admitted "she got a codename yet?"

"Call me Nightsong," Tayuya replied with a smirk at Dinah's reaction to her crucial role in the plan.

"It works," Dinah noted casually.

"We should all take the same entrance," Oliver decided "once we're inside we stick together and watch each other's backs."

"Good idea," Lana agreed "so far no one who has gone into Black Creek has ever come out."

"Well we'll be the first," Tayuya stated with utmost confidence.

"Having a map of the place would be useful," Arthur added "so we can find the main office quickly."

"I can hack Luthorcorp's system and see if I can find one if they actually keep one anywhere other than on site," Chloe offered "just have to be careful not to leave any traces, don't hold your breath for that though, we'll probably have to make do without it."

"The next guard change is at 6:00PM tonight," Lana added "or it should be unless they changed the schedule."

"Good," Oliver decided "we can make our move then, Chloe, I know finding a map of the place is a long shot, but see if you can, I'll contact Emil and let him know we need to use the Dimensional Transporter again and explain why, meet me at the Metropolis airport at 4:00 PM, bring all of the gear you'll need for this, I'll see you all then."


	28. Chapter 28

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 28**

About five minutes to four Tayuya turned up at the metropolis airfield, hitching a ride with Clark; Kara arrived at the same time.

Unfortunately Chloe hadn't been able to obtain a map of Black Creek.

Tayuya had brought the entire contents of the weapon package Tsunade had slipped to her as she was leaving Konoha and secreted the equipment in as many different places on her person as she could, sliding the kunai inside her belt while her right trouser pocket rattled with shuriken and her left held the smoke capsules, she had even tied her hair back so as to disguise the senbon as hairpins.

She had slid her new flute and the exploding tags into a pocket on the inside of the leather jacket she was wearing.

Presently the entire team stood ready to go outside the site identified as the location of Black Creek, those who had uniforms were wearing them however Clark, Kara and Tayuya were still in civilian clothing seeing as they hadn't worked with Oliver's League all that much before.

Chloe was monitoring things from a distance in her role as Watchtower; each member of the team had been issued with a headset COM Link so that she could communicate with them.

"How do you use this thing," Tayuya grumbled as she tried to switch her COM Link on "this kind of tech isn't commonly used where I'm from."

"Need a hand?" Oliver offered.

"I-no wait I got it," Tayuya replied.

At that moment Chloe's voice crackled over their headsets.

"_I'm in position and hacked into their network__," _Chloe reported _"their security is__ now offline and I have access to their surveillance, I should be able to direct you to their main office by using their cameras to find it__."_

"Copy that," Oliver replied "we're set to go here."

"_Okay everybody," _Chloe instructed _"check in so I know __you're good to go."_

"Green Arrow is online," Oliver reported.

"Black Canary online."

"Impulse is online," Bart reported.

"Aquaman is online."

"Cyborg is online."

"Boy Scout is online," Clark announced, grimacing with distaste at his codename.

"Nightsong is online," Tayuya reported.

"Power Girl is online," Kara informed Chloe.

"_And W__atchtower is online,"_ Chloe reported _"you're all good to go."_

The northernmost entrance to Black Creek was secured by a heavy blast door like all the others, at first glance it might have seemed impenetrable, but Oliver quickly took care of that with his bag of tricks.

"Nice," Tayuya remarked as she regarded the steel door cut right out of its hinges by what had been used on it "that's a handy trick Arrow."

"Thanks Song," Oliver replied "thermite, burns through even the densest alloys with ease."

Tayuya made a mental note to add thermite to her own arsenal.

"_Okay gang," _Chloe informed the team through their headsets _"I've located the main office, to reach it you need to head down the __hallway to your right."_

"Understood," Oliver acknowledged, gesturing for the team to follow him he headed down that way.

They continued down the hallway for a way, when Clark heard footsteps up ahead around the next corner, he mentioned this to the rest of the team.

The steps were coming their way, any second now they'd round the corner and see them.

It was Tayuya who came up with the plan in this instance as she gestured for them all to stand with their backs against the wall, doing so herself she pulled out her flute and began to play.

At first the tune that Tayuya was playing didn't seem to have any effect, the footsteps kept coming, but as they rounded the corner the guards in question seemed completely oblivious to the presence of the intruders in the facility, they walked right past without even glancing in their direction.

"Are you trying to upstage me?" Dinah asked Tayuya casually.

Tayuya just shrugged innocently as f to ask; _why would I do that? _And continued playing

"_At the next intersection you need to take the left hand hallway," _Chloe informed them over their COM Links _"that should take you directly to the main office."_

Oliver leaned closer to Tayuya and whispered to her.

"Keep playing that tune until we're round the corner and out of sight of the guards."

Tayuya nodded in agreement and kept playing.


	29. Chapter 29

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 29**

As the group reached the door leading into Black Creek's main office they stopped outside it while Clark X Rayed the interior, a few seconds later they had a clear idea of what was on the other side of that door.

"I count five guards," Clark whispered "all armed, and a sixth guy who I'd say is the man in charge here, I'll go in first and shield you guys from gunfire, Canary, you follow up."

"Understood," Dinah replied "steel fists followed by a serve of white noise, should have em on the deck in seconds."

"On three, one, two-_three._"

A tap from Clark broke the door wide open, and in the blink of an eye he was standing in the doorway, bullets ricocheting off of his chest as he stood shielding the others from gunfire until the guards guns clicked empty, then he blurred into motion, taking down the two guards on the left.

Dinah stepped in a second later, hitting the other three guards with her subsonic blast front on, leaving them staggering around disoriented, wasting no time she stepped in and took them down with flawless martial arts moves that left them crumpled on the floor unconscious.

However she was a hair slow dealing with the sixth man, the one in charge of the facility, turning around just in time to see him pointing a gun they hadn't realized he had at her face, his finger moving onto the trigger-.

-An instant later a kunai buried itself in the shoulder of his gun arm, leaving him on his knees grasping at that shoulder in pain as the gun hit the floor with a clatter.

"Thanks Song," Dinah told her new teammate with a nod.

"Anytime Canary," Tayuya replied "we watch each other's back right?"

"Okay Nightsong," Oliver informed Tayuya "the Public Address system is online, do your thing."

"You guys should cover your ears," Tayuya advised as she walked up to the microphone that Oliver had indicated "and that includes you Watchtower, tell me when to start."

Tayuya looked around as everybody present followed her instructions; once she was sure they all had their ears covered she pulled out her flute, the when Chloe gave the word she pressed the button on the microphone with her elbow and began to play.

The genjutsu itself was simple enough, the hard part was increasing its potency so that it would last several hours instead of just a few minutes, Dinah had made sure to shove a pair of earplugs in the ears of the man in charge however because they still needed his knowledge and she had kneeled on top of him to restrain him while Tayuya worked her magic.

After a full minute Tayuya stopped playing and lowered her flute, nodding to the others that they could uncover their ears now.

"_Guys,_" Chloe reported over their headsets "_it worked, they're all asleep._"

"Copy that Watchtower," Clark replied "Power Girl and I will start clearing them all out of the building."

Kara nodded in agreement and the two Kryptonian cousins super sped out of the room to do just that.

"Now," Oliver said as he turned toward the obvious leader in this place who was now sporting a Kunai wound to his shoulder as Dinah got off of him "where does Lex keep his cloning machines."

"What cloning machines?" apparently this man wanted to play dumb "we don't have any."

"I have sources that say you're lying," Oliver replied smoothly "I know you do have them, so where are they?"

"Like I'd tell you."

"I know how to make him talk," Tayuya volunteered, putting her flute to her lips she began to play, this time directing the sound with her Chakra so that only the subject of interrogation was affected.

As those still present watched facility coordinator was pulled upright as though by an invisible force, his arms pulled out to his sides as he turned white as a sheet, his face gradually taking on a look of horror as though staring into an unending nightmare.

"Stop it," he begged "make it stop."

Tayuya paused playing for an instant.

"Tell us where the cloning machines are," she told him flatly "if you do then I'll stop."

"Ugh-n-no," the facility coordinator denied "never."

"This will get a lot worse you know," Tayuya told him flatly "talk and you'll spare yourself the horror."

"Okay, fine," the facility leader relented "it's in the underground levels, third level down."

"Thanks," Tayuya told him gratefully as she stopped playing, lowered the flute and dissolved the genjutsu; a moment later she raised it to her lips again.

"Hey wait," the facility coordinator protested "I told you what you wanted to know."

"I know you did but we can't have you getting in our way, this should keep you oblivious for the next few hours," Tayuya replied as she began to play once more, directing the sound with her Chakra to affect only him of course, this however was a different tune from the one she had just been playing and had a completely different effect.

A moment later the facility coordinator fell asleep on the floor.

"Okay," Oliver noted "we need to pay a visit to the underground levels."

**Replies to Reviews**

**jaelin910; I appreciate the feedback you have written in any case, as you've probably guessed Earth 1's timeline is going very much AU due to the crossover of two realities, just how AU it will get remains to be seen.**

**Shugokage; There is that fact affecting things for sure, however at some point I hope to pit Tayuya against a DC villain with similar abilities to her own, namely the Pied Piper. I have a feeling that this would be an interesting matchup because Tayuya probably wouldn't have that kind of advantage against him, of course I first have to find information about that particular DC character.**


	30. Chapter 30

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 30**

As the team entered the third level down of Black Creek's underground levels Oliver took the lead, his crossbow drawn and ready in case any of the guards had somehow managed to shake off Tayuya's genjutsu.

As it turned out one had or rather he had the sense to cover his ears when he saw his friends begin to fall asleep for no apparent reason; however he wasn't seen as they entered, he had his back pressed against the wall beside the door, his gun drawn.

It was Tayuya who sensed the danger, her shinobi senses alerting her to it as she shoved Oliver out of the way of a shot that would have drilled him straight through the chest.

However, she wasn't quite quick enough to avoid getting hit herself, crying out in pain Tayuya sank to her knees; grasping at her left shoulder in pain and clenching her teeth as her face screwed up in a agonized grimace she turned in the direction the shot had come from.

The guard who had just shot Tayuya carefully lined up for a second shot, aiming for the center of her forehead.

A moment later he was struck by a subsonic blast from Dinah and a tazer bolt from Oliver striking him down before his finger could tighten on the trigger.

"Thanks Canary," Tayuya gritted as she tried to bite back another cry of pain with only partial success, the pain causing tears to well up in her eyes against her will, Dinah wasted no time walking over to assess Tayuya's injury.

"Jacket off, now," Dinah instructed, Tayuya gingerly complied, wincing each time her wounded shoulder protested "Arrow, see if you can find a first aid kit or something."

Once Tayuya had removed her leather jacket Dinah immediately began to assess the injury, she frowned slightly.

"Hmm, it's a through and through," Dinah noted "that's one small mercy at least cause it means the bullet isn't still inside, and luckily it doesn't appear to have struck any bones, you'll have to take it easy on that shoulder for a while though, Arrow, how's that first aid kit coming?"

"Found one," Oliver reported as he walked back with the first aid kit in question "how bad is it?"

"Relatively minor," Dinah replied "this girl has the damnedest luck, first she survives having a forest dropped on her and now she gets shot in the shoulder without it hitting any bones."

"I don't fucking feel lucky," Tayuya growled through clenched teeth.

"I guess you wouldn't after getting shot," Oliver surmised with a nod "Watchtower, are you receiving me?"

"_Loud and clear Arrow,_" Chloe replied over Oliver's headset "_what's the situation?_"

"Nightsong is injured," Oliver reported "she's just been shot."

"_What? Is she okay? It's not serious is it?_"

"No I'm fucking fine apart from the fact that I can't use my left arm properly," Tayuya told Chloe sarcastically, then she took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down, after all Chloe was just concerned about her "better than seeing Arrow drilled through the heart in any case, according to Canary it didn't hit any bones so I should heal fine as long as there aren't any bullet fragments left in the-oww_, shit, _be careful with that dressing will ya Canary_._"

"Sorry," Dinah apologized sheepishly.

"_Impulse here,_" Bart reported over the team's headsets "_I just found what I assume is the cloning device but I think we're going to need Watchtower's help figuring out how to use it._"

"At least getting a DNA sample won't be a problem," Tayuya joked with a weak smile "I'm leaking it all over the place."

"Arrow, can you find an eyedropper?" Dinah asked the green clad archer.

"There's a plastic one in the first aid kit," Oliver replied as he passed it to Dinah, who used it to suck up some of the blood that had run down Tayuya's arm.

"Keeping the sample safe," Dinah explained in response to Tayuya's questioning look.

As Clark super sped Chloe to the location of the rest of the team inside the cloning lab and she got to work figuring out how the cloning device worked the first thing he did after was find his adopted sister and make sure she was okay.

She was sitting on the floor near the device, her left arm tied up in a sling with her jacket thrown back on over it, and of course being as stubborn as she was she was insistent on seeing the mission through despite her injury.

"Hi Scout," Tayuya greeted him brightly as he walked up to her, Clark sighed shaking his head.

"You weren't kidding about always giving me grey hairs were you Song?" Clark noted in a resigned tone.

"Hey it's not like I planned to get shot," Tayuya protested defensively, gesturing with her good arm for emphasis "but I couldn't very well just stand by and do nothing while Arrow got a bullet in his chest."

"Just goes to show that the hero is who you really are," Clark replied with a smile "I think this is who you always were deep down."

"Thanks bro," Tayuya nodded with a smile "I just wish being a hero didn't hurt so much."

"I think I've figured out how this works," Chloe reported as she gestured to a receptacle on the side of the device, removing the cover from it as she did "the DNA sample goes in here."

Dinah nodded as she walked up and emptied the eyedropper full of Tayuya's blood into the receptacle, Chloe then began pushing a few buttons, a moment later the machine hummed to life.

"Now we wait," Chloe announced "it'll take at least four hours for the process to complete itself and most of that time will be spent analyzing and recording Tayuya's genetic code, according to what I've been able to find out the actual construction at the end of that will only take a few minutes."


	31. Chapter 31

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 31**

Three hours passed without incident, Chloe healed Tayuya's injured shoulder as soon as she was finished setting the machine going and although her arm still felt stiff and sore she now had full use of it again.

Now that she had some degree of control over her healing powers Chloe suffered no negative effects from healing Tayuya beyond a little mild exhaustion.

For a time it seemed as though everything would go smoothly, until there was just an hour to go until the completion of the clone that is.

Chloe had returned to monitoring the situation from outside, seeing as she wasn't needed to operate the cloning device anymore that seemed the logical course of action.

It was Chloe who first noticed that something was wrong.

"_Guys,_" Chloe reported over the team's headsets "_I think we have a problem, a group of black unmarked vans just pulled up outside, if I had to guess I'd say they were Luthorcorp's private army._"

"_I'll distract them,_" Kara volunteered "_I just have to keep them chasing me for the next hour right? How hard could that be?_"

"Be careful Power Girl," Clark told his cousin "if you see them getting out anything that might be kryptonite get out of there."

"Trust me Boy Scout," Kara replied cheerfully "they won't catch me."

"'Trust me,'" Clark quoted "I hate it when anybody says that."

Kara smirked to herself as she listened to her cousin worrying about her again, Kal was so overprotective of her, and now of Tayuya as well.

_Well, _Kara thought to herself as she took to the air and flew out of the facility _time to get their attention._

Focusing on a tire of one of the black vans Kara concentrated for a moment, using her heat vision to pop the tire in question; that got their attention quickly enough.

As the people in the vans quickly piled out, all carrying automatic rifles Kara waved cheerfully at them, her intention being to taunt them into chasing her.

"Hi there," Kara called out with a smile.

There followed several shouts, then they opened fire on the kryptonian girl, Kara laughed as the bullets bounced off of her invulnerable skin.

"Hey that tickles," she called out to them "catch me if you can losers."

Kara flew away from the Luthorcorp goons at a leisurely pace, just fast enough to outdistance them, but not fast enough to lose them, taunting them all the while as she led them further and further away from the facility.

Clark sighed, Kara was probably making the right decision he privately admitted; nonetheless he didn't like the idea of his cousin taking on a bunch of Lex Luthors private soldiers without any backup, he wouldn't have liked it if Tayuya were in that situation either.

_Kara and Tayuya both, _Clark thought to himself _those two are both giving me grey hairs, they're more alike than either of them realizes._

"How's the clone coming?" Clark asked Dinah as she watched the readouts.

"I'm no expert on cloning machines," Dinah told the kryptonian "but according to the screen there's just over forty minutes before the machine can start actually building the clone, and once it's built and we've got it safely away we can shut this place down once and for all starting with this infernal cloning machine."

"Can't wait to blow that thing up," Tayuya opined "my DNA in Lex Luthor's hands does not sit well with me."

Clark nodded; then pressed the talk button on his headset.

"Hey Impulse are you there?" Clark asked.

"_Reading you loud and clear Scout,_" Bart replied "what's up?"

"I'm gonna go give Power Girl a hand," Clark told the young speedster "can you back the two of us up?"

"Sure," Bart replied "I can do that."

"Thanks," Clark responded gratefully "I appreciate it."

"I'll help out too," Tayuya volunteered.

"You need to rest your shoulder," Clark replied seriously "it may be healed now but you still need to take it easy for a while."

"Take it easy?" Tayuya asked incredulously "there's soldiers closing in on us for fuck's sake how the hell do you figure I'm actually gonna do that."

"This is for your own good Nightsong," Clark told her "you got shot barely more than three hours ago, you might still have bullet fragments inside your body, and if they start to move around you could be in real trouble."

"Like hell I'm just gonna just sit back and do nothing," Tayuya protested "come on Clark, you know me better than that."

Clark sighed as he realized that he wasn't going to win this one.

"I guess I do," Clark relented "fine, you can come, but you stay at a distance in a support role only."

"Genjutsu support," Tayuya replied with a nod "I can stick to that."

Clark looked at her skeptically.

"I won't get into hand to hand combat okay, you happy?" Tayuya assured him.

"Just try not to get shot again," Clark told the young redhead "I don't like seeing you get hurt."

**Replies to Reviews**

**jaelin910; that is true, however for now they have no choice but to let it continue because they need the clone in order to complete their ruse and keep Tayuya safe from Orochimaru****.**** One they're done they fully intend to destroy the machine along with the entire facility, and since Chloe is blocking communications to the outside that should mean that all recordings of Tayuya's DNA are destroyed.**

**At least it should work that way, theoretically.**


	32. Chapter 32

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 32**

The mercenaries chasing the flying blonde girl with the laser eyes were finding that she was very frustrating to chase down, they were all starting to get the impression that she was toying with them.

Add to that the fact that they had all shot her multiple times without managing to cause her any actual injury and they were all of a frame of mind to kill the next living thing they saw that would actually die.

A moment later they all found themselves relived of their weapons as a sudden gust of wind blew through their ranks.

"Hey," a voice called from off to their left "looking for these?"

About fifty yards away a young man in a red outfit of some kind was standing with the mercenaries' weapons piled at his feet.

The squad leader went for his radio, only to find that it wasn't there anymore, he looked up to find it in the hand of a tall dark haired young man in red and blue.

A few seconds after that a haunting melody filled the air.

For a long time after the mercenaries were aware of nothing besides the music of a flute.

The next thing they knew they were driving back to where they had been dispatched from, their equipment was lying haphazardly in the backs of their vans and they were utterly confused about why they'd been sent in the first place.

They had no memory of anything besides some sweet sounding flute music.

Tayuya smirked as she tucked her flute away, watching the black vans depart the facility and head back the way they had come."

"Am I good, or am I good?" Tayuya asked rhetorically.

"You're good," Clark admitted "but so is everybody on this team, in any case you are a valuable addition to the group."

"This league of heroes," Tayuya smiled to herself at the thought that she was now a protector of the innocent "does our team have a name yet?"

"Not yet," Clark replied "Oliver was thinking something with the word justice in it, because Lex is in for a big serve of justice."

"Well then why don't we call ourselves the Justice League," Tayuya suggested.

"I like that," Clark decided thoughtfully "catchy and it states clearly what we're about, I'll mention it to Oliver when I get the chance."

"Just remember that I thought of it okay?" Tayuya reminded her brother.

"I know," Clark assured her "I'll make sure Ollie knows too."

"Thanks."

"Oh, by the way," Clark pressed the talk button on his headset "Canary, how's the clone coming?"

"_The construction process has started_," Dinah replied "_I'd say it's about halfway complete_."

"Thanks," Clark replied, then glanced in Tayuya's direction "shall we Nightsong?"

Tayuya nodded as she placed an arm across Clark's shoulders.

A moment later the adoptive siblings vanished in a blur of speed.

Within another five minutes the clone was complete and they were ready to move it out, there was an understanding that only those of the female gender were to be present when the cloning chamber was opened; for obvious reasons.

So as it stood now the only people in the room were Kara, Dinah and Tayuya herself as the chamber opened to reveal the stark naked clone, only just created and already a corpse.

Tayuya found herself a little creeped out by the sight of her own face staring lifelessly back at her with glassy eyes as her doppelganger lay naked inside the cloning chamber, forcing herself to look away she went and fetched a body bag.

Once the body bag was opened and laid out properly Kara walked up and picked up the lifeless clone bridal style and placed it inside the body bag.

As the bag was zipped up Tayuya heard a voice that sounded almost eerily like Orochimaru whisper something disturbing in the back of her mind.

_That could have been you._

Swallowing uncomfortably Tayuya tried to push the thought aside; Kara seemed to notice her discomfort.

"You okay cousin?" the kryptonian girl asked her musically inclined adopted relative.

"Uh-yeah I'm all right," Tayuya assured her "it's just a bit disturbing seeing your own dead body, that's all."

"I guess so," Kara acknowledged "but remember that isn't really you, it's just a cheap knockoff of you."

Tayuya chuckled lightly.

"I know, but try telling my subconscious that."

A moment later Kara picked up the body bagged clone in a fireman's carry and super sped out of the facility heading back to the jet.

"_Okay gang_," Chloe told the group over their headsets "_now that the clone is complete and I have confirmation that everybody is out of the facility it's time to shut it down_."

"Finally," Tayuya smirked as she walked toward the cloning machine, reaching into her jacket and pulling out the exploding tags hidden there alongside her new flute.


	33. Chapter 33

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 33**

The moment the clone was safely out of the facility Tayuya immediately began slapping every exploding tag she had on the cloning machine, once this was done she gestured for everybody to leave the room, pausing in the doorway she brought her hands together in a tiger seal, focusing on the explosive tags and willing them to explode.

The tags began to burn from the bottom up simultaneously, seeing this Tayuya immediately moved out of the doorway and hit the red button on the metal doorframe that she guessed closed the blast door, as it turned out she guessed right.

A moment later a massive explosion was heard on the other side of the door causing the wall to crack and the metal blast door to bow outward slightly, smoke seeping from where it had been pulled free of the frame.

"I've wanted to do that since Chloe told me that thing would analyze and record my DNA," Tayuya smirked "fuck you Lex, you're on the losing end here."

"Well that takes care of the cloning device," Dinah noted casually "now for the rest of this place, let's get those charges planted."

The rest of the operation went smoothly enough; once the charges were planted and Chloe had confirmed that all of the people in the building were out and a safe distance away (workers, guards, scientists and those who were being held prisoner and experimented on) they detonated those charges blowing the whole vile place to kingdom come.

Now as they flew back to Metropolis in order to complete their ruse they talked.

"Well that takes care of another 33.1 lab," Oliver remarked on the subject of the charnel house of human experimentation they had just blown up "hopefully those Lex was holding prisoner in there will be able to rebuild their lives now that they're free of that place."

"I hope it helps that I dissolved the sleep genjutsu on the prisoners after Clark and Kara pulled them out," Tayuya prayed "meaning that by the time the guards wake up they'll be long gone, but unfortunately there's always some trash like Lex trying to take advantage of people like that, this I know firsthand."

"I've said it before and I'll say it again," Arthur remarked scornfully "Lex is a real tool."

Hmm-tool," Tayuya mused thoughtfully "I'll have to remember that one."

"Eh, he'll get his someday," Bart remarked optimistically "at least I hope so."

"With us around he will," Clark added with equal optimism.

"I hope you're right," Tayuya wished thoughtfully "after what I saw while we were planting the charges and what I could see had been done to those people in that place. Nothing would give me more pleasure than to expose the truth about Lex Luthor to the world and watch as he's dragged off to prison; that bastard really is like Orochimaru."

"You know there's an entire industry in this world dedicated to chasing down news and printing it for people to read or broadcasting it over the airwaves," Chloe told the young kunoichi "we call it the news industry, and we call those who actually chase down that news reporters, that's the industry I work in, I'm an investigative reporter, a reporter who makes a living exposing the truth behind mysteries."

"Such as the truth about those who pretend to be good but are in fact corrupt," Tayuya realized, smiling as an idea occurred to her "you know, that sounds like my kind of job, actually Clark should consider that kind of career too being as heroic as he is."

A few hours after that the team found themselves back at the research facility where the Dimensional Transporter was housed, they had discussed Tsunade's proposal and they had all agreed to go to the other universe as a group this time around.

Now the entire team, including Chloe stood waiting in front of the transport device with the Tayuya clone, it was set on a time delay and locked onto the vibrational frequency for Earth 2 that was recorded into its memory.

A moment later they all disappeared in a blinding flash of light.


	34. Chapter 34

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 34**

Earth 2

As soon as the team was back on Earth 2 they and the shinobi of Konoha wasted no time getting the clone dressed in Tayuya's old Sound uniform and taking it out to where she had been critically injured just over a month ago.

Now the entire team was at the site, in the middle of the downed trees working alongside the shinobi of Konoha to place the clone in the same position the real Tayuya had been lying in just after her defeat at Temari's hands.

Shikamaru was currently helping to position the clone correctly.

"This is troublesome," he complained "but despite the fact that Tayuya tried to kill me she is trying to turn over a new leaf now so the least we can do is make that possible for her, now she was lying like this and coughing up blood with the logs on top of her lower half."

"Coughing up blood," Tayuya recalled "yes I remember; I was still doing that when I regained consciousness because my lungs were bleeding into themselves after getting hit with Temari's wind blast."

Tayuya thought for a moment, then she reached down and lifted the clone's head up a little, opening the mouth as she did, she seemed to pause for a moment.

"Fucking death stare coming out of my own fucking face," she cursed as she pulled the clone's eyelids closed "it's driving me fucking batshit."

Taking a deep breath to calm herself Tayuya pulled out one of the kunai shoved inside her belt, and with it she made a small incision in the palm of her own right hand gritting her teeth against the pain as she did.

Pulling the clone up into a sitting position Tayuya opened its mouth right up and trickled the blood welling up from the cut on her hand into its mouth, tilting the head right back to ensure that the blood got right down into the clone's lungs.

"There has to be blood to make this convincing," Tayuya explained in answer to the curious stares she was receiving "and it has to be my blood or Orochi fucker might notice the difference."

After she was done Tayuya laid the clone back down getting it as close to the position that Shikamaru had placed it in as she could, trailing a little blood from the corner of its mouth and up its face before she pressed her left hand over the cut in her right palm and stood up.

"Okay, now for the actual damage," Tayuya stated as she stepped well back and gestured for Shikamaru to do the same "Dinah, would you do the honors please?"

"Gladly," Dinah replied as she stepped up.

Taking a deep breath Dinah let loose with her subsonic blast, concentrating the sound waves on the chest of the clone, she kept this up for half a second; then stopped.

"That should do it for the lung damage," Tayuya decided with a nod, then she gave the other sound using fighter a hard look for a moment before adding "I saw that gleeful look on your face Dinah."

"What gleeful look?" Dinah asked innocently.

"None," Tayuya replied, breaking into a smile as she did "I was just teasing."

"Wow," Shikamaru realized as he saw this "you've changed a lot."

"Chalk it up to Clark's influence," Tayuya replied casually "being around him tends to bring out the best in people."

"Or maybe the lack of Orochimaru's influence," Clark suggested as he joined the conversation "now the real Tayuya can come out."

"Well then I'm glad the fake Tayuya is gone for good," Shikamaru decided "having her try to kill me was far too troublesome."

"Only part of that was an act you know," Tayuya corrected the lazy chunnin.

"The murderous part I hope," Shikamaru prayed.

"Yeah," Tayuya assured him "the murderous part, the truth is that I've never liked killing people, in fact I hated it, I just pretended to like it to keep Orochi fucker happy."

"Okay, back to the plan," Shikamaru reminded the others "what other injuries did you have?"

"Apart from my broken legs?" Tayuya asked "cracked ribs."

"Right side or left side?"

"Left side," Tayuya supplied, Shikamaru nodded.

Walking around to the left side of the clone Shikamaru gave it a hard kick in the ribs, Clark then X Rayed the clone's chest, confirming that the appropriate ribs were now cracked.

"You enjoyed that a little too much shithead," Tayuya accused Shikamaru.

"Okay maybe I am still holding a small grudge," Shikamaru admitted with a shrug "can you blame me?"

"Not really," Tayuya confessed shamefaced, her voice becoming quiet and remorseful as she did "I didn't just try to kill you, I insulted you and worst of all I insulted your friends."

"Great now I feel like a heel," Shikamaru sighed "oh man, what a drag."

"Well now it's just the broken legs," Tayuya noted "Clark, put the logs on top of the clone exactly the way they were laying on top of me."

"On it," Clark replied as he blurred into motion, within seconds the job was done, a quick check with X Ray vision confirmed that the clone now had broken legs.

At that point Shizune stepped forward with a vial of something.

"This is something that our scientists cooked up," Shizune explained as she carefully sprinkled the liquid over the half buried clone "it greatly speeds up bacterial activity, specifically decay bacteria, within twenty four hours it will look like this clone has been here for over a month, now, Shino if you could command some carrion bugs to have a chew on the clone-."

"Consider it done," Shino replied as he reached out with his mind to every carrion insect in the area, Tayuya turned away in disgust as the implications sank in.

"I _so _don't want to see this," she decided.

"So that takes care of everything then," Clark observed.

"Not quite," Shizune corrected, then in answer to Clark's questioning look she added "we still need to get rid of the crater caused by your arrival."

"Done and done," Clark replied as he went to work on the problem at super speed, within a minute the crater and all evidence of it were gone.

"_Now _everything is taken care of," Shizune decided "let's get back to the village."

As Shikamaru was about to follow the others he felt a hand on his shoulder, he turned and saw that the hand belonged to Tayuya who looked uncharacteristically nervous about what she had to say.

"Umm-Shikamaru," Tayuya paused for a moment "look, I'm sorry for what went down between us, I know that isn't really worth anything and I won't beg for a forgiveness I don't deserve but-."

"Its fine," Shikamaru assured her "I know that you regret what you did, and I forgive you, on one condition-well two actually, the first is that you never do anything like that again and instead dedicate your life to being the hero you can be."

"I plan to do that anyway," Tayuya told him "and the second condition?"

"When we get back to the village," Shikamaru replied with a smile "I want to play against you in a game of Shogi."

"Is that all?" Tayuya asked with a smile "you have yourself a deal."


	35. Chapter 35

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 35**

Earth 2

"So basically what you're asking for," Oliver surmised "is that if your village is facing destruction at the hands of some huge threat you can call on this team-."

"This Justice League," Tayuya interjected.

"Justice League?" Oliver asked "I didn't know our team had a name yet."

"Well it can have one now," Tayuya informed the billionaire archer "if you think that name is a good one that is."

"I like it," Oliver decided "what about everybody else?"

"I think it fits," Dinah decided thoughtfully.

"Certainly describes what guys like Lex are gonna get a serve of." Arthur agreed.

"I was thinking we could call ourselves the Super Friends," Bart joked, then noticing the dirty looks he was getting he quickly added "but 'Justice League' works."

There followed murmured affirmatives from every other member of the team, that taken care of they got back onto the topic at hand.

"So the deal is that if you are facing destruction at the hand of some massive threat you can call on the Justice League for help," Oliver noted "in return you help Chloe to learn full control of her healing gift, I think I can live with that, what about everybody else?"

"I'm all for it," Clark stated without hesitation "I mean helping people is what we're about anyway right?"

"I like the idea," Tayuya added "and if said threat happens to be a certain snake bastard I'd wager I'll like it even more, after all I'll get a shot at kicking his ass."

"I like it, I might even get to show everyone here how awesome I am," Bart bragged, earning him whack up the back of his head from Tayuya.

"Egomaniac," Tayuya snorted as Bart rubbed the back of his head and gave her a dirty look.

"Well, you guys did help Clark a lot," Dinah decided "so I guess we can trust you, I vote yes."

"Another chance to upstage the archer," Arthur remarked slyly "I'm all for it."

"You're the one who's gonna be upstaged fish breath," Oliver retorted with a smirk.

"Who am I to refuse a friend in need?" Victor decided "I'm in."

"You're good people," Kara assessed "you helped my cousin and gave my other newly adopted cousin a second chance, if you need help protecting this village you can count on mine."

"And of course I'm in favor of this as well," Chloe added "these people have proven themselves to be trustworthy allies, and I really do need help controlling this power."

"So we're all in agreement then?" Oliver asked; everybody nodded "good," he turned and addressed the Hokage of Konoha "the answer is yes."

"That's good," Tsunade replied "and if your world ever needs help desperately you can call on us as well."

Earth 1, the remains of Black Creek.

Lex Luthor stood impatiently near the ruins of another of his Project 33.1 labs, his face betrayed no emotion whatsoever; to a casual observer it might have seemed that he didn't care.

But inside he was seething, millions of dollars of equipment and research destroyed by a group of interfering do gooding nuisances who seemed to have a problem with him experimenting on a bunch of freaks of nature.

The cloning facility in the basement levels had been some of his most expensive research, now it was all destroyed.

Add to that the fact that his father seemed to be avoiding him like the plague, resulting in Lex being unable to obtain the second Veritas key and he was not having a very good day.

Lex wouldn't have been surprised if his father had already palmed the key off to somebody else and was putting on an act to keep Lex chasing him, but he had to be certain and the only way to achieve that was to corner his father and find out once and for all if he still had the key.

"Sir," Gina called "we found something in the remains of the cloning device."

"What have you found?" Lex asked "is it something useful?"

"It might be Sir," Gina replied "among the remains of the cloning machine, the receptacle for the genetic templates is still partially intact, and it still has traces of blood in it."

"Meaning that the device was used just before the facility was destroyed," Lex realized in surprise "can a DNA sample still be extracted?"

"It might be possible Sir," Gina mused "shall I have some of our scientists get to work on it?"

Lex thought for a moment, that machine couldn't produce living clones, only dead ones and they were only useful if you planned to fake your death, so whoever had used the machine needed to fake their death for some reason, but why?

"Have them do so immediately," Lex instructed "I want to know who this blood belongs to."


	36. Chapter 36

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 36**

Earth 2

Tayuya sat opposite Shikamaru, the Shogi board set up on the table between them, considering her next move, after much thought she moved one of her pieces.

"Nice move," Shikamaru complimented her "looks like I was right that you'd be good at this."

"Thanks," Tayuya nodded "you're pretty good at it yourself Shikamaru."

"So," Shikamaru asked as he made his move "did they get all the pieces of the-what was it you got shot with? Bullet? Out of your shoulder?"

"Yeah," Tayuya confirmed "there were a couple of pieces of metal still in there but Shizune managed to get them out okay, then it was just a little healing Chakra to patch me up."

"So what kind of weapon fires projectiles like that anyhow?" Shikamaru asked as Tayuya considered her move.

"The same kind of weapon that Chloe and Lana were packin' on their first trip here," Tayuya supplied as she moved one of her knights "a firearm, more commonly known as a gun, oh by the way-check."

"Nice," Shikamaru noted as he regarded the move Tayuya had pulled "you are actually learning something, I couldn't see what you were up to until just now, but," Shikamaru moved his queen, taking out the knight in question and placing Tayuya's king in check "you still didn't guard your king properly-check."

"Or so it would appear," Tayuya replied smoothly, moving her one remaining rook "but as you can see your queen is now off the board."

"But my bishop isn't," Shikamaru reminded her as he moved the piece in question "check and mate."

Tayuya looked at the board in astonishment as she realized the ingenious strategy that Shikamaru had just pulled on her, she'd been tricked by him again; not that such a thing was surprising he was a tactical genius after all.

"Son of a bitch," Tayuya remarked with an astonished shake of her head.

Earth 1

A short while later the whole group transported back to Earth 1 and went their separate ways, the Kents, including the newest adopted member of the family were dropped back at the farm by Chloe who promised she would start working on Tayuya's identity papers immediately.

As the three walked up to the farmhouse they were greeted by a woman who was immediately familiar to Clark, his adoptive mother Martha Kent.

"Mom," Clark smiled widely "you managed to get some time away from the senate I see."

"When I heard you were missing I made time Clark," Martha replied with a smile, then a glance in Kara's direction "and meeting your long lost cousin is something that's long overdue, then when I heard there was yet another addition to the family I knew I had to meet her as well," Martha added as she looked in Tayuya's direction "you must be Tayuya."

"Hello Mrs. Kent," Tayuya greeted the older redhead with a smile "it's good to meet you, and yes-I am."

"No need to be so formal," Martha assured the young girl "you can just call me Martha if you want, you're pretty much family now."

"I thought you'd want me to call you Mom," Tayuya replied with a smile.

"Only if you're comfortable with calling me that," Martha told her gently "I wouldn't want to force you into anything you're not ready for, from what I hear it's about time you got to choose for yourself."

"Thank you Martha," Tayuya replied "after all the shit I've had in my life so far it's nice to finally have a choice."

"Language young lady," Martha told the younger redhead sternly, a ghost of a smile on her face "you'll make more friends if you can keep a civil tongue you know, it's all very well to curse when you're under stress but the rest of the time it creates a bad impression with others."

"Yeah Tayu can be a little-free and easy with her language," Clark told his mother nervously "this is actually quite well-mannered for her."

"Sorry, it's kinda habit," Tayuya replied, she'd only just met Martha Kent and the older woman was already the last person she'd ever want to disappoint "my old life was pretty stressful and frankly cursing was the only real freedom of expression I had, it's easy to cut loose and swear a blue streak in that situation."

"I heard about that from Chloe," Martha nodded "so I won't try and make you stop swearing, I'll just keep reminding you that you should probably try to cut down a bit."

"I'll try," Tayuya agreed "but I can't make any promises, oh and about me adopting the Kent surname, I think I will."

"Are you cooking something Aunt Martha?" Kara suddenly asked as she sniffed at the air for a moment.

"Wait I smell it too," Tayuya noted as she took a whiff "shit, that's good whatever it is."

Tayuya noticed the slightly admonishing look Martha was giving her.

"Sorry, I swore again didn't I?" Tayuya apologized.

Martha nodded in confirmation.

"I'll try and break the habit," Tayuya promised "but it's not gonna be easy."

"I smell it," Clark noted with a smile "I'd know that wonderful smell anywhere, apple pie."

"That's right Clark," Martha told her son "it should be just about done."

"I hope you made extra," Clark remarked with a smile "we have two extra people here and I daresay they'll want a piece."

"Well then, why don't we head inside," Martha suggested "Lana is watching it for me to make sure it doesn't burn but I wouldn't want to impose on her more than necessary."

"You two are in for a real treat," Clark told his cousin and sister as they all followed Martha inside "Mom's apple pie is the best you'll ever taste anywhere, I can attest to that."

As they approached the door of the house Tayuya hesitated in the doorway for a moment until she felt Clark's hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay," Clark assured her "come on in, this is your home now, you don't need to ask permission or anything."

Slowly, hesitantly Tayuya took a step over the threshold until she was standing just inside the house; she seemed to be as insecure as Clark had ever seen her until she was actually inside and the door closed behind her.

"I'm-home," Tayuya's nervousness gradually became a smile as it sunk in that she now had a place where she belonged "I have a home, and a family."

"Welcome home Tayuya," Clark told his sister gently.

Tayuya's reaction was immediate, she was so touched by Clark's kindness in that moment that in an uncharacteristic display of exuberance she threw her arms around her newfound brother and hugged him for all she was worth, what she whispered to Clark told him just how touched she was.

"Thank you-brother."

**Author's note;**

**The next chapter will be the conclusion of this particular story, though not the conclusion of the Redeemer series, but I will be taking a break before I begin writing the next story****.**

**Replies to Reviews;**

**jaelin910; yes, they definitely made a mistake by not having Clark or Kara heat vision the template receptacle on the cloning device however in the heat of the moment such things can happen, it will come back to haunt them however.**

**Hmm- Lex teaming up with Orochimaru or Akatsuki? Maybe in the future but not right away, there are plenty of other things that can go wrong because of this without Lex even having to leave Earth 1, I don't think I mentioned this yet but Tayuya's musical genjutsu is actually a Kekkei Genkai, the implications of that and Lex having a sample of her DNA should be pretty obvious.**


	37. Chapter 37

**Smallville/Naruto**

**Seizing the Future**

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

**Chapter 37**

Tayuya felt bliss overwhelm her taste buds as this wonderful dish called apple pie entered her mouth, a glance in Kara's direction told her that her new cousin was enjoying it just as much and the same could be said of her adoptive brother, chewing slowly she made sure to savor the mouthful of pie as long as possible before finally swallowing.

"That is _good,_" Tayuya remarked with a contented sigh.

Without hesitation Tayuya dug into the rest of her slice of pie, devouring it with great enthusiasm, within minutes it was all gone and she sat back in her chair contented.

Her attention was drawn to the conversation Clark and Martha were having when she heard mention of an organization called Checkmate that had apparently reared its ugly head in recent months, apparently they had made a habit of tracking those with special powers and skills both hero and villain, for what reason Martha had yet to determine.

This was something they would have to look into of course, but for today they could set those cares aside and enjoy a little peace.

Tayuya let her right hand hang down beside her chair as she leaned back and relaxed, a moment later she felt a cold wet canine nose press into her palm as a tongue licked her hand.

"What th-," Tayuya looked down beside her to see a large shaggy brown dog sitting beside her chair, his tail wagging happily "hello there, you're certainly friendly."

"I think Shelby has taken a liking to you Tayu," Lana remarked teasingly as she finished her own slice of apple pie "I guess you really are one of the good guys now."

"I'm glad he likes me," Tayuya smiled as she gave the dog an enthusiastic pat and scruff "who's a good pooch Shelby, eh who's a good dog."

"Why don't you take him out for a game of fetch?" Clark suggested "I'm sure he'll like that."

"I-um-never really had a pet before," Tayuya admitted "aside from my Doki and they don't really count."

"Doki?" Lana asked curiously.

"Big undead Ogre things that I could control with my flute," Tayuya explained "Orochimaru created them and gave me the ability to summon them via the power of the curse seal he put on the back of my neck. He gave me the Doki so I'd have a weapon that could do damage directly, I lost the ability to summon them when he removed the curse seal but they were just automatons anyway so not really pets."

"I see," Martha noted rather disturbed by what she had just heard "to think that Orochimaru could be so inhuman as to blatantly force a beautiful young girl to become a weapon just to serve his own selfish ends, he truly is a monster."

"I really thought he cared about me," Tayuya replied sadly "I believed him when he said he was trying to create a better world and that only he could lead it, but the truth is that he wasn't the hero I thought he was at all, I can't decide which hurts more, realizing the truth, or losing who I thought he was."

"I know where you're coming from," Kara told her "my father Zor El was the same."

"But," Clark told both of them as he patted Shelby "pets like dogs and cats and such will always love you unconditionally, and playing fetch with a dog isn't that hard, you just throw the ball and he chases after it and brings it back to you, it's fun."

Tayuya smiled as she caught the rubber ball Clark had lightly tossed to her then stood up and headed for the door, calling Shelby to follow her as she did.

Clark smiled as he watched his adopted sister Tayuya playing fetch with Shelby, and from the looks of things thoroughly enjoying it, he was glad that she still find some joy in her life.

He turned as Lana sat down beside him, and the two lovers exchanged a brief but passionate kiss before watching their young charge in silence once more.

"She's been through a lot hasn't she?" Lana remarked "she's very strong to survive all of that."

"Yeah she has," Clark agreed "what Orochimaru did to her was beyond inexcusable but she seems to be moving on, I hope she'll be okay now."

Lana placed a reassuring hand on Clark's shoulder, smiling gently as she did.

"She'll be okay Clark, she's got us."

Clark nodded as he and Lana headed back inside, he took one more glance at his little sister before letting her have some time to herself for a while.

As he watched for that moment Clark was glad that Tayuya was able to let her cares go and just be a kid, she deserved to be able to do that, while she still had a childhood left.

Hopefully the future in front of her would be much brighter than the past behind her.

In a tree nearby sat a hawk, at least it looked like a hawk.

But things are not always what they appear, inside this was much more than a hawk, it was an artificial intelligence from a dead world that had taken the form of a hawk.

It was the Brain Interactive Construct, its purpose right now; to remove the greatest obstacle to its master Dru Zod's conquest of this planet.

Namely the last son of Krypton.

For just over a month it had seemed that the problem had already been solved, the son of Krypton had seemingly disappeared without a trace, but now he was back.

It seemed that action would have to be taken after all.

**The end; for now**

**The series will continue in 'Metal Scourge'**


End file.
